[Charleston home prices] The median is not the message
A bit of a play on Marshall McLuhan's, The medium is the message for the title of this post but as I was gathering market statistics for the Charleston real estate market report that will be posted either later today or tomorrow, I noticed that the median price for homes sold in Charleston jumped up to $200,000 for the first time since July 2008.
Although the number of sales will be lower in July than last year, due to the expiration of the first time home buyer tax credit, the mix of homes sold changed. There were fewer lower priced homes sold and more sales of mid priced and luxury homes and of course the median price reflects the center point of all home sales.
It's one of the reasons that I cut back on reporting the median and average sales prices because the median is not the message and homes did not suddenly increase in value during July. Prices are and will be a reflection of supply and demand.