Mr.Steve,Yes the median means that an equal number of discrete...

Mr.Steve,

Yes the median means that an equal number of discrete units exists above and below the median figure.

There is a reason why medians are used, they are the lesser of evils.

For example if we have 11 houses sold in a suburbs as follows:

200K, 205K, 210K, 250K, 270K, 275K, 390K, 420K, 500K, 900K, 1.1 Mill

The AVERAGE price of those houses is $429K

The MEDIAN price of those houses is the figure that has an equal number of discrete units above and below it. The figure of $275K has five discrete units above it and five discrete units below it.

The MEDIAN price of those houses is $275K

This is why we don't use averages, they can be deceiving and can be skewed by 1 or 2 big sales whereas the median will not be skewed at all.

The main problem with both of these is when the sample size is too small. This is why a suburb which has less than 30 sales in a 12 month period will be given an asterix when the median is quoted. They want you to understand that the figure is not as meaningful as it would be if a greater number of properties had been sold.

Most property figures will show the overall median but they will also show the median for the upper quartile and the lower quartile for each suburb. This gives you a view of the cheaper houses and more expensive houses in that suburb as well.

The fact is that city wide medians deal with very large sample sizes and therefore are meaningful enough to be quoted. The example you showed Warnie with only 20 transactions is misleading if you are saying that it is comparable to the city wide figures he was quoting.

Having said all that, the city wide figures themselves are a little bit like the All Ords. They tell you the general health is good but they don't tell you which stocks are doing well or doing badly. The city wide figures don't show that some suburbs are blitzing in terms of growth whilst others are lanquishing or even dropping.

The scare mongers on this thread will quote the doom figures because it suits their purposes. "My mate has a mate who sold his house for 20% less than he paid 6 months earlier..."

They conveniently ignore the larger-sample figures which show that everything is going beautifully. They don't discuss the suburbs which are growing fantastically, again because they would rather keep that quiet.

In the end, this is a waste of all our time. Me, Dhuy, Warnie etc will keep investing in property and most of you guys will keep renting no matter what is discussed here.

In the end I wish you all luck with it but I think you will live in regret.