Pandemic, shelter in place, mass unemployment, terrible financial hardships for many residents and small businesses, new ways of working, office buildings empty out, people move, dreadful fires, an anxious presidential election, interest rates drop to historic low, IPO mania breaks out once again, stock markets reach new highs, vaccines begin to arrive – and, after an initial crash in activity, the real estate market went into hyper-drive, with median home sales prices hitting new peaks. The luxury home market in particular was extremely strong. 2020: a year of extremes.

Many factors affect home values besides city and bedroom count: quality of location within the city, architectural style and curb appeal, condition, views, amenities, extra rooms, parking, decks and yards, privacy, lot size, and so on. Small houses are sometimes valued more by lot value and plans to expand or rebuild.

There is a vast variety of homes within the region and within cities and how median sales prices apply to any particular property is unknown without a specific comparative market analysis.

Median sales price is that price at which half the sales occurred for more and half for less. It is a very general statistic that often disguises a wide range of prices in the underlying individual sales. Median sales prices are often affected by factors besides changes in fair market value. Based upon sales reported to MLS – not all sales are reported. Data from sources deemed reliable, but may contain errors and subject to revision. All numbers are approximate. Late reported sales may alter numbers, though typically only to a slight degree.