An average number is very influenced by the numbers on the extreme. Median number is less influenced.
For instance, there are 5 people who's ages are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 55. If we want single number that represented this group's age ...the average would be 13. Well, 13 is a terrible representation of the set. On the other hand, the median of this group is 3. ...which is a much more accurate representation of the entire group's age.
So in real estate, the same principle applies. I like using median figures to describe market statistics because it isn't adversely influenced by extreme numbers. If i was looking in an area for recent sales and everyone was around $200K, but there was one special property that sold for a million...it won't affect my numbers when calculating with medians.
In your example where the average list price is 307K and the median sale price is 146K and falling... the likely explanation is that there are a few really expensive homes on the market that are skewing the average price calculation. The median sale prices reflect a more accurate representation of market value in that area "in general."
To really figure out what's going on in this case, you really need to look at the set of homes being used to generate those numbers. If there's 30 homes on the market and you list them all out by price... look at what the high end of the price range is and how many of those there are. To get it that far apart (307 to 146K) would likely require several super high ends...
hmm.....another explanation could be the houses on the market are just crazy priced across the board. One way to find out is to compare average and median figures for the same set. You said the average list price is 307K...what's the median list price? If those two numbers are way off, then my original explanation is most likely correct. If those two numbers are close to each other ...then asking prices are just crazy and not in line with what the market is doing. A good cross-reference is time on market for those houses.
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