Two public figures give context to one of our listing videos: the median price of new houses sold in the United States in August 2026, and average weekly pay in the first quarter of 2026 for five states and the United States. This page lists each figure exactly as the publisher reported it, explains what it measures, and links to the source. Details of any listing live on that listing's own page, not here.
Median price of new houses sold, August 2026
This figure comes from the New Residential Sales survey, which the U.S. Census Bureau runs jointly with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It covers the United States as a whole.
- · United States, median sales price of new houses sold: $393,700
Source: U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, New Residential Sales · August 2026, preliminary · released Sep 24, 2026.
What the median means
The median is the middle price: half of the new houses sold in August sold for more, and half for less. A few very expensive houses do not pull it up the way they would pull up an average. Our home-price panel shows averages instead, and the two measures are not interchangeable.
The figure covers newly built houses only, not existing homes. Census counts a new house as sold when a deposit is taken or a sales agreement is signed, not when the sale closes. Because the survey is based on a sample, Census revises recent months in later releases, which is why August carries the preliminary label.
Average weekly pay, first quarter of 2026
The pay panel uses the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, known as QCEW. The rows always appear in the same fixed order, so the panel is a list, not a ranking.
- · Florida: $1,518
- · Georgia: $1,539
- · Maryland: $1,676
- · Pennsylvania: $1,550
- · Texas: $1,646
- · United States: $1,654
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW · first quarter 2026, preliminary · released Aug 28, 2026.
What the pay figure measures
Each figure is the average weekly wage across all jobs covered by unemployment insurance, in every industry, private and public employers together. BLS builds it from the quarterly reports employers file: total wages for the quarter, divided by average monthly employment, divided by the thirteen weeks in the quarter.
It is not take-home pay, and it is not a median; it averages full-time and part-time jobs together. The count leaves out proprietors and the unincorporated self-employed. Preliminary means the figures can still change: BLS publishes final figures for a year with the first-quarter data of the following year.
Two different measures
The price is a national median for newly built houses in one month. The pay figures are averages for all covered jobs in one quarter. They come from different publishers, describe different periods and are built in different ways, so this page sets them side by side without dividing one by the other or turning them into a single score.
Where to go next
The Sources list below links each publisher's page. Average vs. median: reading our home-price panel explains the difference between the two measures, how to read our housing charts covers the source line on every chart, and our property search is open whenever you want to look at homes.