What does the median measure in property assessment?

The median is a statistical measure that identifies the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data set. In property assessment, when we refer to the median, we are specifically looking at the exact middle assessment value within a set of property assessments. This means that half of the properties have assessments below this value and half have assessments above it.

Using the median is particularly helpful in real estate and property assessments because it is less influenced by extreme values or outliers, providing a more accurate representation of a typical property value in the given dataset. This makes it a reliable measure when assessing properties, especially in markets where there might be significant variability in property values.

Other options, while related to assessments, do not accurately capture the essence of what the median represents in this context. The average assessment value, or mean, considers all data points, which can skew results with very high or low values. The highest assessment value speaks to a different measure of central tendency altogether, while the proportion of properties exceeding a certain ratio relates to distribution, not the central measure of values within an array. Thus, identifying the median as the exact middle ratio in an array effectively highlights its role as a central value indicator in property assessment.