San Mateo County Real Estate » Medians

San Mateo Median House Prices Q3 2008

Vicki Moore — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:48:08 +0000

I’ve gone on and on about median prices and what they mean. You can catch my soapbox theory at that post.

Here’s the straight dope: The median prices are calculated by looking at the MSA or Metropolitan Statistical Area. As Realtor.org says, MSA’s “are as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and include the specified city or cities and surrounding suburban areas.” What’s that mean? It means that San Mateo County is lumped in with San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont.

California existing home sales

2005	2006	2007	2007.III	2007.IV	2008.I	2008.II r	2008.III p	Qtr.	Yr.
								% Change	% Change
601.1	459.9	355.0	314.4	305.2	310.0	388.8	498.0	28.1%	58.4%

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont Metropolitan Statistical Area

2005	2006	2007	2007.III	2007.IV	2008.I	2008.II r	2008.III p	% Change
715.7	752.8	805.4	824.2	778.0	701.7	684.9	615.7	-25.3%

San Mateo County Median Sales Price Q3 2007 & 2008

	2007 Q3	2008 Q3	% of Change
San Mateo County	1,147,720	777,777	-47
Atherton	4,300,000	3,925,000	-9
Belmont	937,250	900,000	-4
Brisbane	1,025,000	860,000	-7
Burlingame	1,359,000	1,212,000	-11
Daly City	710,000	560,000	-22
East Palo Alto	584,900	315,000	-47
El Granada	970,500	655,000	-33
Foster City	1,175,000	1,088,000	-8
Half Moon Bay	1,150,000	859,837	-26
Hillsborough	2,852,000	2,323,750	-19
La Honda	665,000	250,000	-63
Loma Mar	647,500	1,100,000	69
Menlo Park	1,207,000	1,340,000	11
Millbrae	975,000	980,000	0.5
Montara	1,145,000	847,500	-26
Moss Beach	819,000	700,000	-15
Pacifica	728,825	580,000	-21
Pescadero	645,000	2,150,000	97
Portola Valley	2,430,000	2,050,000	-16
Redwood City	872,500	790,000	-10
Redwood Shores	1,194,000	1,065,000	-11
San Bruno	755,500	599,500	-21
San Carlos	1,151,000	1,020,000	-12
San Mateo	945,400	825,000	-13
South San Francisco	700,000	580,000	-18
Woodside	2,335,000	1,600,000	-32

Got a San Mateo County real estate question? Call me at 650.888.9268 or send me an email Vicki [at] CallVicki.com. If you like what you’ve read, subscribe to the San Mateo Real Estate Blog feed.

Start your San Mateo home search here.

San Mateo County Median Home Sales August 2008

Vicki Moore — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 01:36:53 +0000

	# Sold	Aug-08	Aug-07	% Change
	# Sold	Aug-08	Aug-07	Yr-to-Yr
San Mateo County	544	$619,500	$799,000	-22.47%
BELMONT	18	$914,000	$930,250	-1.75%
BRISBANE	2	$664,500	$767,500	-13.42%
BURLINGAME	30	$1,210,000	$1,505,000	-19.60%
DALY CITY	75	$532,500	$680,000	-21.69%
EL GRANADA	3	$650,000	$1,016,000	-36.02%
HALF MOON BAY	13	$615,000	$680,000	-9.56%
MENLO PARK	15	$890,000	$748,000	18.98%
MILLBRAE	24	$840,000	$974,500	-13.80%
MOSS BEACH	2	$577,500	$755,000	-23.51%
PACIFICA	30	$550,000	$716,000	-23.18%
REDWOOD CITY	67	$731,000	$757,000	-3.43%
SAN BRUNO	41	$569,000	$697,500	-18.42%
SAN CARLOS	40	$900,000	$1,060,000	-15.09%
SAN MATEO	109	$682,000	$786,500	-13.29%
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO	47	$510,000	$687,500	-25.82%

I’m not a statistical analyst, nor a mathematician, but here’s my take on median prices.

Got a San Mateo County real estate question? Call me at 650.888.9268 or send me an email Vicki [at] CallVicki.com. If you like what you’ve read, subscribe to the San Mateo Real Estate Blog feed.

Start your San Mateo home search here.

All the best,
Vicki Moore

San Mateo Median House Prices

Vicki Moore — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:07:26 +0000

The National Association of Realtors released the news last week that the US median housing prices fell 7.6% as compared to the same quarter of 2007 to $206,500.

I say median smedian. What does median housing prices mean? Nothing. Do you actually know how median is calculated? It’s not, really. It’s literally the middle. There is no calculation.

I went to mathisfun.com where they display how to ”calculate” the median:

“How to find the Median Value

It’s the middle number in a sorted list.

To find the Median, place the numbers you are given in value order and find the middle number.

Look at these numbers:

3, 13, 7, 5, 21, 23, 39, 23, 40, 23, 14, 12, 56, 23, 29

If we put those numbers in order we have:

3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 23, 23, 23, 29, 39, 40, 56

There are fifteen numbers. Our middle number will be the eighth number:

3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 23, 23, 23, 29, 39, 40, 56

The median value of this set of numbers is 23.

(Note that it didn’t matter if we had some numbers the same in the list)“

It’s the middle number in a sorted list of arbitrary numbers.

I know I’ve said it a thousand times – like here and here - maybe I should make it into a disclaimer – but statistics are deceiving. You have to know what you’re comparing. In this case, they’ve taken the whole United States. I don’t even compare two cities in San Mateo County, let alone the whole dang US.

This data is segregated by Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The problem is that San Mateo County is grouped with San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont – markets ranging from one polar opposite to the other. Taken as a whole the SF MSA took a -19.1 hit. Yikes.

2005 2006 2007 2007 II 2007 III 2007 IIIV 2008 I 2008 II % Change

715.7 752.8 805.4 846.4 825.4 778 701.7 684.9 -19.1

So let’s drill down. For the purpose of not giving me a headache, I’m going to focus on San Mateo County as a whole – which will still give me a headache to sort all this. But if I must…

2005	2006	2007	2007 II	2007 III	2007 IIIV	2008 I	2008 II	% Change
1087.3	1107.3	1126.2	1163.5	1491.2	1209.3	1338.9	1181.6	0.98

So what does this mean? Nothing. It doesn’t indicate a thing. It doesn’t portray how much housing prices have gone up or down. It doesn’t portray the cost of buying a home. It doesn’t calculate whether housing values have gone up or down. It doesn’t tell YOU if it’s the right time for YOU to buy.

But if you listen to the media you have been told that we’ve taken a nose-dive when it truth San Mateo County as a whole has held steady. Again, to find out what’s happening in your neck of the woods, you have to drill even deeper.

If you’ve got questions, let me know. I’ll do my best to answer whatever you throw my way.