Why Do Lighthouse Point Medians Swing So Far Between Pages? Reading Sold Medians That Fall on One Page and Rise on Another

Why is the Realtor.com sold median half of the listing median?

The Realtor.com table for Lighthouse Point shows a median sold price of $487,500 beside a median listing price of $1,124,000. The listing median is 2.3 times the sold median, a ratio this brief computes, and a gap of $636,500. Homes rarely sell for less than half of their list price, and the page itself shows a sale-to-list ratio of 93%, so the two medians cannot be describing the same homes. The most likely cause, which this brief labels an inference, is that the sold median includes a large share of condominiums and the listing median includes more houses.

The yearly changes point the same way. The sold median is down 51.25% on the year and down 55.68% over three years, while the listing median is up 32.17% on the year and down 1.91% over three years. Working back from the sold median, a fall of 51.25% to $487,500 implies a year-earlier median of $1,000,000, and a fall of 55.68% implies about $1,100,000 three years ago. Those are this brief's calculations and not published figures. A town whose homes truly lost half their value in a year would not show a listing median that rose by a third in the same year.

The page's own text adds more tension. It calls the market balanced in one sentence and cool in another, says the median listing days on market of 96 days signals faster turnover, and says the listing median signals strong seller demand. The same page shows days on market up 20.83% over three years. The days on market figure shows an identical change of negative 21.62% for the month and for the year, which is possible but unusual. The summary sentences are generated from the table by a template and do not weigh one figure against another.

The page also names the areas inside the town, and the prices there show the range. Venetian Isles has a median listing price of $1,995,000, $803 per square foot and a median rent of $5,500. Coral Key Villas has a median of $3,445,000 and $1,000 per square foot. Palm Aire at Coral Key has a median of $450,000 and $392 per square foot. The highest of the three is 7.7 times the lowest, a ratio this brief computes. A reader who sees only the town's median has no way to tell which of these a home resembles.

Source: Realtor.com Economic Research, as shown on the page. Commercial content; not independently verified.

What happens when houses and condominiums are counted apart?

A brokerage that works from the multiple listing service separates them, and the split explains most of the confusion. In August 2026 the median house sold for $2,250,000 on 19 sales, and the median condominium or townhouse sold for $160,000 on 10 sales. The house median is 14 times the condominium median. Over the 12 months to August the house median was $1,355,500 on 196 sales, which is 0.3% below the $1,359,000 of the 12 months before, and the condominium median was $166,519 on 98 sales, down 23.4% from $217,500.

The August house median of $2,250,000 is 66% above the 12-month median of $1,355,500, a gap this brief computes. The page itself explains why: it uses the shortest window with at least five sales, and a single month in a small town is a small sample. The page says so, noting that monthly and trailing medians compare different homes and not repeat sales of the same home. A seller who read $2,250,000 as the price of a house in Lighthouse Point would be reading a single month, and the median of 196 sales over a year is a much steadier $1,355,500.

The same page shows that sales rose. Houses sold in the 12 months to August numbered 196, up 31.5% from 149, and condominiums and townhouses numbered 98, up 40.0% from 70. In the first eight months of 2026, 136 houses sold against 107 a year earlier, and the median for those eight months was $1,582,500 against $1,385,000. A rise in sales of 27.1% alongside a flat 12-month median suggests that the mix of homes changed more than the price of any one of them, an inference this brief draws and the page does not.

A blended figure shows how far off a single number can be. The Realtor.com sold median of $487,500 is 64% below the 12-month house median and 2.9 times the 12-month condominium median of $166,519, so it sits between the two groups and matches neither. The Redfin median of $950,000 is 30% below the house median and 5.7 times the condominium median. A third widely used estimate, quoted in a brokerage blog, puts the average home value across all property types at about $771,700 as of late July, up 0.6% on the year. All of them are plausible, and none says what a given house would bring.

Source: the brokerage page cited above, from multiple listing service data. Percentages and ratios are this brief's arithmetic. Commercial content; not independently verified.

How long does a Lighthouse Point sale take, and how many homes compete?

The clocks run from 50 to 189 days, and the range is explained by what is timed and by how few sales there are. Realtor.com shows a median of 96 days on market for the town. Redfin shows 111 days on average for the three months to July, against 95 a year earlier, and calls the market not very competitive. The brokerage page shows that houses that sold took a median of 50 days to go under contract in August and 69 days over the year, while houses still for sale had been listed a median of 72 days. Condominiums took 141 days in August and 73 over the year.

The sold clock is shorter than the for-sale clock for a reason the brokerage page states: homes that sell quickly leave the market, so the homes still listed are the slower ones. A second brokerage page shows the other extreme, a median of 189 days on market for September on three closed sales. A median of three sales is the middle sale, and nothing more. It is a useful reminder that the days on market for a small town change a great deal with one or two sales.

The counts of homes are not the same either. Realtor.com shows 195 homes for sale in August. The brokerage page shows 75 houses and 68 condominiums for sale on September 19, which is 143 together and 52 fewer, a gap this brief computes. The months differ and so may the boundaries. The brokerage blog gives 71 houses and 63 condominiums on September 15, four days earlier, so the count moved by 4 houses and 5 condominiums in four days. On Realtor.com's neighborhood table the named areas account for 103 of the 195, led by Venetian Isles with 58, Coral Key Villas with 22 and Palm Aire at Coral Key with 8.

Redfin's counts of sales do not match the brokerage's. Redfin says 99 homes sold in July against 24 a year earlier, a 4.1-fold rise. The brokerage page shows 59 houses and 32 condominiums sold in the three months from June to August, 91 in all, and 19 houses and 10 condominiums in August. A count of 99 for July alone is above the brokerage's 91 for three months. The boundaries are likely different, and the two pages cannot both describe the same set of homes. A seller should read both counts as measures of different things.

Sources as cited. Commercial content; not independently verified.

What does the Census say about a postal area much larger than the town?

The postal area the sheet pairs with Lighthouse Point has 64,563 people and 26,955 homes. This brief infers from that size that it is larger than the town and likely includes neighboring areas, since the Realtor.com page for the town shows 195 homes for sale. The Census cut is therefore a description of the surrounding area and not of the town. Of 23,936 occupied homes, 15,632 (65.3%) are owner-occupied and 8,304 (34.7%) are rented, and 3,019 homes (11.2%) are vacant.

The median household income is $71,301 and the median rent is $1,789, about half of the Realtor.com median rent of $3,550 for the town, a ratio this brief computes. The median owner-occupied value is $320,100, with a margin of error of $18,994, or 5.9%. The brokerage's 12-month house median of $1,355,500 is 4.2 times that value, and the Realtor.com listing median is 3.5 times it. The Census figure describes a postal area where many homes are condominiums and older houses, and it says little about the waterfront.

The move-in dates show a turnover that the pages do not. Of 15,632 owner-occupied homes, 1,295 (8.3%) have owners who moved in in 1989 or earlier, 2,044 (13.1%) in the 1990s, 2,637 (16.9%) in the 2000s, 6,590 (42.2%) in the 2010s, 2,791 (17.9%) in 2020 to 2022 and 275 (1.8%) in 2023 or later. Owners who moved in since 2010 number 9,656, or 61.8%. Owners who moved in before 2000 number 3,339, or 21.4%, and many of them may own with little debt.

The renters moved in later. Of 8,304 renter-occupied homes, 4,398 (53.0%) have renters who moved in in the 2010s, 2,338 (28.2%) in 2020 to 2022 and 1,082 (13.0%) in 2023 or later. Renters who moved in since 2020 number 3,420, or 41.2%. Few renters, 84 or 1.0%, moved in before 2000.

The age of the homes is the other side of the picture. The median year built is 1972, and 18,827 of 26,955 homes (69.8%) were built before 1980. Of those, 7,009 were built in the 1970s and 6,698 in the 1960s. A canal town with houses from the 1960s and 1970s has seawalls, roofs and systems of similar age, which is the subject of the next section.

Source: Census Reporter, American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates, tables B25038, B25034, B25077, B25003, B25002 and B19013. Percentages and ratios are this brief's arithmetic.

What does the median not include?

A brokerage blog titled for the seawall makes the point that a median price leaves out the cost of the wall behind a canal-front house. It says that under Broward County's resiliency code a seawall repair that covers more than 50% of the shoreline length, or costs more than 50% of the value of the flood barrier along that shoreline, is treated as a full replacement. It says the replacement then needs an engineer of record and, where the work touches the waterway, review by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers. These are the blog's own statements, and the blog is a brokerage's marketing page. This brief has not checked them against the code.

The blog also says lenders and insurers have started asking for elevation certificates and seawall inspection reports as due diligence on Broward waterfront property. It says the dock rules depend on the width of the canal, with a breakpoint at 100 feet, and that Intracoastal-fronting lots can carry a dock extension of up to 46 feet under the city's ordinance. Two houses of the same size and asking price can therefore differ in what a boat owner can do. A median shows none of that.

For a seller the blog says a seawall with documented permits and a recent inspection is a selling point. That is a practical way to read the whole record. A canal house sold publicly is compared by the permit history behind the wall, the dock rules for its canal and the age of the roof, and none of those is in a median. A seller who has the documents can state a price with confidence, and a seller who does not may find that a buyer's inspection raises the questions.

This is where a private sale differs in practice. With no inspections or repairs, a buyer who comes through Maison Off-Market does not ask a seller to repair a seawall before closing or to cut the price for a roof. The price and the terms are agreed in one conversation. This brief does not claim that a private sale brings more than a public one, and the seawall is a reason an owner might prefer certainty to a negotiation over repairs. Readers comparing markets can also read the Vineyards brief and the North Miami brief.

Source: the brokerage blog cited above. Statements about the code are the blog's own and have not been checked. Commercial content; not independently verified.

What should an owner ask, and what does a private sale change?

Ask whether a figure is for houses, condominiums or both. Ask how many sales are behind it and which months. Ask whether it is a listing price or a sold price. A seller who has the answers can read a page, and a seller who does not will find that four pages give four medians and two opposite directions.

A private sale changes how a home reaches a buyer. With Maison Off-Market there are no showings and no neighbors talking about a sale, the closing date can be flexible so that an owner has time to find a new home, there are no commission costs, there are no closing costs and there are no inspections or repairs. For an owner of a home in a postal area where 69.8% of homes were built before 1980, a sale without inspections or repairs removes a list of work that a buyer would otherwise raise. This brief does not claim that a private sale always brings a higher price than a public listing.

Fee arithmetic shows what the commission point means in dollars, without assuming any rate. Each 1% of a sale price is $9,500 at $950,000, $13,555 at $1,355,500 and $22,500 at $2,250,000. At 3% those amounts are $28,500, $40,665 and $67,500. At 5% they are $47,500, $67,775 and $112,500. These are illustrations of what a percentage means on the figures in this brief, and they are not a statement of what any agent charges or what any sale would cost.

Timing is the other thing an owner controls. A public listing starts a clock, and the pages above show 50 to 111 days, with a condominium taking 141 days in August. A private sale lets the owner choose the closing date, which matters most to people who need to find the next home first, or who would rather close before the next storm season.

Privacy is often the first thing owners raise. A public listing puts photographs, a price and every price change in front of anyone, and in a small town where a handful of sales set the median the neighbors read it. A private sale keeps those details out of view. That is a matter of preference and not a claim about price.

If you are weighing a sale of a Lighthouse Point home, one conversation costs nothing and obliges you to nothing. We ask about the home, the timing you would like and what you would need from a buyer, and we say plainly whether a private sale fits.

If you would like a private, no-obligation offer for a Lighthouse Point home, call 401-219-4207 or use the contact form on this site.

Methodology and limitations

Prices, days on market, counts and ratios come from a Realtor.com page with indicators as of August 2026, a Redfin page with data to July 2026, a brokerage statistics page updated September 19, 2026, a second brokerage page showing September 2026 on three sales, and a brokerage blog with counts dated September 15, 2026. The pages cover different periods and boundaries, and most are commercial pages, so they are not independent of each other. The Realtor.com sold median contradicts its own listing median and sale-to-list ratio, and Redfin's count of 99 sales in July exceeds the brokerage's 91 for three months; both are flagged above. The Census figures are five-year estimates for a postal area that is larger than the town.

Conclusion

The Lighthouse Point record shows sold medians of $487,500 on Realtor.com, $950,000 on Redfin and $1,355,500 to $2,250,000 for houses, with condominiums at $160,000 to $166,519, and waits of 50 to 111 days. The pages differ because the town sells two kinds of homes at prices more than 14 times apart, and a blended median describes neither.