What is the difference between Average  Price (AP) and Median Price (MP)?  I’m ask that quite often and the use of these terms can be confusing.

AVERAGE PRICE:  As used in my Las Vegas real estate practice, it is the average of a given number of  home prices – usually Las Vegas  homes that are presently listed on the market (average listing price), or homes that have recently sold (average sales price), helping to create a pretty accurate listing price range for client who wants to sell a house.   It’s the mathematical result of adding the total price of  the comparable houses divided by the number of comparable houses.   The figure is most useful if used for the exact floor plan in the same subdivision or a very defined area within a very defined time period.     Otherwise, the  use of "Average Sales Price" to describe a general market, for instance the entire United States ASP,  may be interpreted and influenced in many ways on timing, and can vary and fluctuate making it quite inaccurate relative to a specific area.

MEDIAN PRICE:  A statistic that is described as a "measure of central tendency".  It is a half point in a list of homes between the highest and the lowest – so it can move up or down depending on conditions.  It is not the average or mean value.  It can represent many underlying values in a data set.  It is the most common measure of central tendency used in real estate practice – for large areas like a city, zip code and specific areas.

The median price of Las Vegas single family homes at the end of January, 2010, for instance, is variably listed as around $135,000, is soft and is continuing to drop – slowly.  However, the overall average sales price of homes over the entire Las Vegas Valley, the same single family homes, has stabilized and is even increasing marginally presently.   This will, or can influence the median price range eventually.  They simply show two different methods of measurement.