The Median

By Justin Eslick

Everyone wants to know what the median price is for the suburb they are interested in, or perhaps the median rent. In fact we quite it all the time, but only because people want to hear it. The trouble is the median means nothing when it isn't taken into context.

I remember reading a heading years ago stating some ridiculously high growth rate for a suburb in a particular quarter. I looked at the figures. They were right. It was huge, but it was based on 3 sales! That's right, there were only three house sales in that suburb during that quarter and one was a brand new house. Talk about skewed.

Whenever you look at the median you need to ask yourself honestly where your property sits...which quartile it belongs in. Especially if you have a suburb with a large array of property types, from hilltop with views, to waterfront, to backing onto a freeway or train line. The median in a suburb like this is next to useless, especially if there have been a limited number of sales.