Confused about why you're seeing different median house prices reported?
News outlets often get sales stats from reports written by property portals. In Australia, major portals include realestate.com.au, domain.com.au, and reiwa.com.au.
Today, Domain released a report stating the median house price as $777,921 for our city, while REIWA, reported it as $620,000.
So why the huge difference?
The median house price is the middle value in a list of all house prices, from lowest to highest. It represents the price at which half of the houses sold for more and half sold for less.
The portals can only report what's been recorded on their website. Domain, being more popular in the eastern states, does not have all listings recorded from Perth, resulting in calculations based on a smaller number of sales.
In contrast, REIWA has access to all property sales in Perth, providing a more accurate figure. As an agency, we base all our stats on REIWA to ensure accuracy as much as possible.
What about average home prices? Is that the same thing as median?
Not quite… Median and average home prices may seem similar, but they're actually quite different, and it's important to understand why.
The
average home price is calculated by adding up the prices of all homes sold and then dividing that total by the number of homes sold. In contrast, the
median home price is the price at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less— basically, it's the middle number.
Median prices are often considered more reliable because they represent where most of the sales fall. This makes them a better measure when there's a wide range of prices, like in neighborhoods with many home sales.
That's why in areas where hundreds or even thousands of homes are sold each year, such as many residential areas, median prices are used more often to give an idea of how much homes cost.
Important to note:
Using median prices to track property value changes in a market is helpful, but it's important to note that a 10% increase doesn't always mean your property is worth 10% more.
In reality, your property's value could have actually decreased during this period.
But don't forget, in a hot market like ours, it's the buyers who determine the true value of your proeprty!