Why headline medians mislead suburb decisions

‘Median house price up 8%’ is the most repeated and least useful number in property. A median moves when prices move — but it also moves when the mix of sales changes, when renovators flood a quarter, or when a handful of prestige sales land in a small sample. The headline moves; your decision shouldn’t.

The metrics that actually answer a suburb question sit underneath the median: sales volume and its trend, days on market, vendor discounting, the split between house and unit performance, rental yield against holding costs, and what similar budgets are buying one suburb over.

None of these numbers is exotic. What’s rare is assembling them against a specific decision. ‘Is this suburb good?’ is unanswerable. ‘Does this suburb’s evidence support what I’m trying to do, at this price, over my timeframe?’ — that is a question data can answer.

That is the entire premise of SuburbIQ: your question, the metrics that answer it, and professional commentary on what the evidence does and doesn’t say. Data is everywhere. Answers aren’t.