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The median of Canada is a terrible way to look at the housing prices of Toronto. The median of the USA is a terrible way to look at the housing prices of San F
by TimPC 4y ago
The median of Canada is a terrible way to look at the housing prices of Toronto. The median of the USA is a terrible way to look at the housing prices of San Francisco. As much as it can be tempting to say "median is a great statistic" and it's even true that it's usually better than average. That doesn't make it a panacea and that doesn't make it do things it's not intended to do.
There is some merit to me getting data to compute median housing prices in Toronto and redoing the analysis based on that. Still an analysis of average housing prices in Toronto is far more useful to the Toronto market than an analysis of median housing prices in Canada.
- warrenm 4y agoMedians are the only sane way to compare anything Median income in San Jose is not the same as median income in the entirety of the US - but it's the median in the area you're looking at I honestly don't understand why you have such a hard time understanding this - unless you just want to post hyperbolic complaints about a city you cannot afford to live in, perhaps
- TimPC 4y agoI don't have the full dataset so can't calculate the medians. If you have the data you're welcome to do so and make the comparisons. You continue to act as if you've refuted my central point when all you have done is provide a data set that is irrelevant to the region of interest and computed the median of that irrelevant data set. My point that average while imperfect is still a useful measure. My point is that the irrelevant data is not useful even if you compute a median for it. My point is that I'd rather analyze information about the San Jose real estate market from the average prices of San Jose then the median prices of the US. I also don't think it is close which of those sources is better data. I'm working with the data I have. Would I like it to be better? Yes. I also happen to be able to afford to live in the city I live in. I happen to be one of the few in my generation that gets to own a home. I also think my home won't go up 12.5 times in value in my lifetime the way my parent's home did. I think society has its head buried in the sand about how real estate works and I think a reckoning is coming in the next 50 years because of metrics about what costs in hot markets will look like. People hate this message because people are overinvested in real estate to the point where they have multiples of their net worth tied up in a house.
- warrenm 4y agoI found median incomes in Toronto in less than 15 seconds: https://www.areavibes.com/toronto-on/employment/ https://www.areavibes.com/toronto-on/employment/ Median home prices likewise: https://creastats.crea.ca/mls/treb-median-price https://creastats.crea.ca/mls/treb-median-price