Housing Decline

The Chicago Tribune reported that the median price of a home sold in Detroit in Dec 2008 was $7,500.

Seven thousand five hundred. Less than most used cars.

Remember that median is simply the middle number in the series when they are arranged in numeric order, it's not the average price. If only three houses sold, one for 1K, 1 for $7,500, and 1 for $100K then the median is still 7500 -- so it's possible that half a dozen houses sold and most of them were dilapidated crack houses, but still! That's a pretty frightening number.