Or did it really? What do you do when you know the numbers must be wrong? 
Numbers are of course just data and need to be interpreted well in order to be of any use.
Clearly there’s more inventory, there are fewer buyers and homes are sitting on the market longer. All this should equate to homes selling for less. Yet last month Belmont’s median home price shot up from $980,000 to $1,170,000. Are you thinking more expensive homes must have sold? Read on…
Granted, Belmont is a small market sample and is subject to dramatic swings in data on a month-to-month basis. Yet examining the last several years, though there are wild fluctuations, overall the trend appears rather clear and recent history reveals this to be an anomaly.
Often times the median home price will spike in a given period due to more expensive homes selling; that argument is made on a regular basis. The problem is how does one know if more expensive home are selling—perhaps homes are simply more expensive?
A more accurate statement to justify a momentary up-tick in values would be more large homes sold in a given period—larger home sell for more right?
If this is the case, we must first understand the profile of the median home in Belmont.
Click here to read more analysis on why the median price data is misleading!
