Guide To Seattle Real Estate

Below are charts that update themselves to the most current information. These real estate statistics are for West Seattle, mainly because that is where I live. If you are interested in real estate statistics for your part of Seattle, shoot an email to JonathanMartin@windermere.com and I will get them to you.

Since these charts automatically adjust every week to the most current Statistics, they are just numbers. For detailed analysis of what is really going on check out the Market Statistic Category with regular updates and explanations.

Median Listing Price for West Seattle (98116, 98126, 98136)

Total number of Listings or Inventory for WS

West Seattle Real Estate Sales

Median Days on Market Statistic

What is “Median” and why is it different from “Mean.”  Both are forms of averages and have their use when analyzing statistics. 

The Mean is the form most often used when talking about averages.  You can calculate the Mean by adding up all of the samples and dividing by the number of entries.  This is an easy way to understand what the sample as a whole is doing.  Unless their are a few extreme Outliers, and there almost always is in Real Estate.

For example lets look at six houses five of them are pretty standard “Eastside” houses and then one is owned by Bill Gates.  We add up the Samples 400k + 500k + 600k + 500k + 600k + 200,000k = 226,000k  That last house belongs to Bill.  Dividing by the number of entries 226,000k/6 = 37,666k  If we use the Mean to calculate the average value of homes in this sample we would think that the average homeowner on the eastside lives in a 37 million dollar home. 

Using the Median instead of the Mean helps to avoid this problem.  The Median is the number where half of the sample is greater and half is less than.  In the previous example the median is 550k. Half the homes are worth more than 550k and half are worth less.

By using the Median to calculate the average value of homes in this sample we would think that the average home owner on the eastside lives in a 550k home.  I prefer using the Median over the Mean when analyzing real estate statistics. 

It is important to know the difference.  Ask yourself next time you here the news media talk about the “average homeowner” or the “average real estate transaction” which are they talking about? The Mean or the Median? Are they talking about the right one or would it be better if they used the other?  You decide.