Economic statistics presented in the media often fail to distinguish between mean and median. Mean signifies an average, but median signifies the middle of a range.
So if nine people possess nine dollars, on average, each person has a dollar. If one person has seven dollars, and the remaining eight people have a quarter each, the median is twenty-five cents - the middle-richest person has twenty-five cents. Since the median is below the average, it signifies that there is a cluster of people much poorer than average in the sample.
Regarding home sales in southern California, the median house price is rising, despite slower sales. It suggests that there are at least two real estate markets - the struggling middle-class one, and the market for luxury homes. At the moment, it looks like the market for the rich is not yet seriously-affected by the general slowdown:
Sales last month were the worst since 1992, according to research firm DataQuick Information Systems. In August, 17,755 homes were sold in the six-county region, compared with 27,875 a year ago, for a 36.3% drop.
Despite the sales slump, the Southland's median home price rose 2.7% to $500,000 from a year ago, DataQuick found. August's number was slightly off the local record of $505,000 set in March.
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