Leavenworth Average Home Prices – 2015 Behind the Scenes
When exploring home price trends in real estate, it’s common to use two different numbers to describe what is going on.
Is there a difference between Leavenworth average home prices and median home prices?
The median home price:
“denoting or relating to a value or quantity lying at the midpoint of a frequency distribution of observed values or quantities, such that there is an equal probability of falling above or below it”
Or simply – the price in the middle if you list all the Leavenworth home prices for the year.
And the average home price:
“the mean, which is calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number”
While the two numbers are related, the average can be skewed by a couple of very low or very high numbers and often doesn’t tell the story as well as the median price.
When putting together the data for our end of year report, I noticed a sizeable discrepancy between the increase in the median home price which increased 7% in Leavenworth for 2015 and the average Leavenworth home price which was reported at 13% above 2014.
Why the difference? Because a single listing threw off the data.
In October 2015, Geordie helped clients purchase a 320 acre parcel off of Fox Road for $2,860,000. The property has a small off the grid cabin, but the value is in the land. The listing agent chose to categorize the sale as a home sale, but this isn’t a multi-million dollar home. If we re-calculate the average home price without this property, the average Leavenworth home price is now at $382,000 or a 9% increase over 2014 prices.
* Required Disclaimer NOTE: This representation is based in whole or in part on data supplied by the North Central Washington Association of Realtors or its Multiple Listing Service. Neither the Association nor its MLS guarantees or are in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the Association or its MLS may not reflect all real estate activity in the Market.
