The median sales price of homes is the selling price of a home that falls in the middle between the most expensive and least expensive home sale price in the area.
The median divides the value distribution into two equal parts: one-half of the cases falling below the median value of the property (house and lot) and one-half above the median. Median value calculations are rounded to the nearest hundred dollars.
The sale price of existing homes measures the value of homes in a community. It serves as proxy for measuring the property value and demand for homes. Sale prices also indicate the quality of the neighborhood that these homes occupy. Safer neighborhoods, good schools, greater access to resources, and a better physical environment (well-maintained sidewalks, parks, and properties) contribute to home sale prices and have an effect on health outcomes of residents1.
1 California Newsreel, Nationality Minority Consortia, Joint Center Health Policy Institute. Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/resources.php?topic_id=6
The data was scrubbed off the RealtyTrac Web site for September 2008:
[www.realtytrac.com/ValueTrac/HomeValues.aspx].