October was a pretty good month for local housing as the market worked off some excess inventory. All price bands except for the over $2 million range showed improvement. And the under $300K range, with only seven months of standing inventory, continues to motor forward. read
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Lindie
$200,000
$200,000
$200,000
$1,000,000
Average: $400,000
The average, or mean, is the least informative statistical measure because it is so easily skewed at the extremes.
Why not median figures, which are far more informative?
Reno Ignoramus
Quite right Lindie. The median figure is a much more valuable piece of information.
In the post just below, we are told that the average of pending offers was $379,000, but the median of pending offers was only $300,000. That is more than a 20% differential. No dount this substantial difference is due to the few high end offers skewing the overall average.
Diane, can you tell us what the median, not average, sales figure was for October for the entire market? Without breaking it down by price segments?
Diane Cohn
The median sold price for October was $293,000… pretty interesting, eh? Sorry about using the less useful average number, but that’s what the statistical reporting tool spits out. Pulling out the medians per price category takes quite a bit longer. But I’ve volunteered to be on the technology committee at our local MLS, so I’ll be lobbying for easier access to medians.
Wazzup
Great advice from the NAR…
“Homeownership is a safe, secure way to build long term wealth. The national median price of homes bought 10 years ago has increased 88 percent. The number of U.S. households is expected to increase 15 percent during the next decade, creating a continued high demand for housing,” the ad reads. It quotes former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan saying, “Most of the negatives in housing are probably behind us. The fourth quarter should be reasonably good, certainly better than the third quarter.”
http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2006/nar_advises_consumers_to_buy_now.html
Lindie
The National Association of Realtors has one agenda, and one agenda only. That is to protect the incomes of its legions of dues-paying six-percenters.
The National Association of Realtors could care less about dispensing honest and unbiased information about the state of the housing market. This has been the the worst year ever for most realtors in terms of their incomes, and that is all the NAR cares about.
Can you imagine the American Medical Association adopting a nationwide multi-million dollar advertsising campaign running advertisements in USA Today proclaiming “THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO HAVE SURGERY” ? Come on, folks, there are surgeons and anesthesiologists and radiologists and pathologists who need the money. So what if you don’t really need the surgery.
NVMojo
Now if they’d only get moving on some of those condos downtown, I’d be just about ready …
Gene
If the median is $293k, than clearly the bulk of the market activity is in the exrtreme low-end of the range of available housing. This number illustrates that it is the cheaper housing which is moving; this is not indicative of an improvement or a movement toward a healthy situation in the housing market, from a seller’s viewpoint.
Reno Ignoramus
What that means is that of all the houses sold in October, one-half sold for less than $293,000. Two years ago, all that was available in the market under $300,000 were fixers and Fernley. Today, half the houses sold are under $300,000. Clearly the price of houses is dropping. But still prices are out of whack to the median income. Still the only way a buyer at the median income can afford to buy in Reno is to use a voodoo loan.
Slowly, despite the stiff upper lip approach of the realtorindustry and its media shills, it is becoming apparent that Reno had a false demand for houses from 2002-2005, driven by speculators and people convinced the Greater Fool theory would never end. It is unwinding.
And did you notice that D.R. Horton has basically given up offering incentives on their standing unsold inventory? They are now hawking straight out price drops on several of their projects in town. And it isn’t even cold outside yet.
Nevada Girl
I just hope I live long enough to see Reno housing prices come down to realistic, affordable levels. I grew up in the Truckee Meadows, left six years ago for an expensive East Coast city and sold our little house in Old Southwest for a modest sum. A year ago, I was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer. I don’t know how long I have to live. I want to come home — move back to be close to my family and get my husband settled in so we can deal with our suddenly uncertain future. Well, guess what? Housing has gotten so outrageously expensive in Reno, we can’t afford to move back. We’re stuck! All because of a bunch of greedy real estate speculators. This housing bubble is having serious consequences for me and my family. I never would have thought this could happen to little old Reno. What a nightmare.