I see this mistake made often regarding home ownership.
The median is the number where half of the sales were below and half were above.
“half of the sales were below”
This goes back to my point. The sales that were below are smaller houses in less desirable areas. Many of these house also need work. Some, lots of work.
The house I bought 12 years ago was one of those houses. I have redone every room in the house. I have replaced every exterior door except one. I removed all the carpets. Sanded and refinished floors. Remodeled every bathroom. I have also replaced about half of the exterior trim.
This is WHY the house sold at a discount to the market.
There’s nothing wrong with the use of “median” there unless I’m completely missing something. It is used because of mean or average because a relatively small number of high outliers distort mean upwards. Median is a better measure of central tendency except when a gaussian distribution is being measured.
And the thing measured is valuation, not sales.