In a recent post, Zillow.com data master Stan Humpheries argues that the median sale price is NOT an accurate reflection of housing prices. Here is Humpheries' argument:

In short, the median sale price is generally not a very reliable indicator of home value changes over time. The reason for this shortcoming is that it conflates two independent characteristics of the housing stock – changes in home values and changes in the mix of homes sold – when we really only want to measure one characteristic – changes in home values.

This really is a rather elementary statistical point and one of the reasons we do not rely on MLS statistics but do our own work to determine what is happening in the marketplace. The median makes sense if one is examining a relatively homogeneous neighborhood. But if one is mixing data on say Maui oceanfront homes, Wailea condominiums and Maui Meadows' homes, median data regarding Maui real estate can really be misleading. Our clients understand that accurate statistical work is necessary to making good decisions and if one examines any of our 2008 research pieces (available upon request), one will notice just how carefully we address these issues.