Makes you laugh though brighton in Melbourne has a house price difference of a mil to 20 mil plus now if the they sell 5 houses at the higher end and the average is up 50% next quarter or is it just variance. Next quarter in the same area no higher end houses sell and 50 at the base sell and the property average price is down 35% has it fallen or are the prices skewed to the type of house sold in a specific area. While it makes for good headlines by doomsayers. It makes me laugh at the usual suspects sprouting off without thinking.
It certainly DOES make you laugh. I have been locking horns with property bulls since I got broadband eight years ago.
NEVER did I hear any objection to the use of "median price" while prices were rising. Why is it no longer appropriate?
I'll give you an example: In my stamping ground the stand-alone house with the hills hoist was de rigueur. What units existed were crumby digs. Eventually the miners and others fell in love with high rise apartments with views over the bay to Magnetic Island [and no yard to tend]. The SMALL apartment market which would have been averaging $150 k was suddenly flooded with thousands of high end units.
I do not recall anyone sounding a note of warning that the increase of "median" was an inappropriate measure for the reasons you speak of. Today's paper tells us that these apartments have continued to fall in value by abt 30% in a year.
