Question

Richard Watkins, chairman of the Central Coast Regional Multiple Listing Services
was quoted as saying “There have been some fairly expensive houses selling, which pulls the median
uo.” Robert Kleinhetnz, deputy chief economist for the California Association of Realtors eplained the
violatitlity of house prices by stating: “Fewe sales means a relatively small number of very high or
very low home prices can more easily skew medians.” Are either of these statements correct?

Answer 1

assume you have a group of prices for houses: {2,2,2,3,4,5,9}. they are in the millions

Answer 2

first, the median is the value that splits the set in half

Answer 3

so 3 million

Answer 4

it seems the question is basically asking, how can you adjust the median?

Answer 5

so can values that are extreme throw off the median when added to the set?

Answer 6

well the first half of the question is Houses in California are expensive, especially on the Central Coast where the air is clear, the ocean is
blue, and the scenery is stunning. THe median home proce in San Luis Obispo County reached a new
high in July 2004 soaring to 452, 272 from $387, 120 in March 2004. (San Luis Obispo Tribune, April
28, 2004). The article included two quotes from people attempting to explain wht the median price
had increased.

Answer 7

and then the question is asking if those either statement makes sense

Answer 8

ok

Answer 9

so the median is not very susceptible to outliers, adding a billion dollar house, just one house will only push the median up a little, though the mean will be highly adjusted

Answer 10

so how can you really push the median up?

Answer 11

seems to me that the easiest way to push the median up is to add more values greater than the median to the set...

Answer 12

So would the first statement make sense because if the prices of some of the homes increased the median would increase?

Answer 13

because the first statement i saying that some expensive houses we're being sold so maybe in the previous year the houses were not as expensive so that's why the median was smaller

Answer 14

prices went up