When a headline says home prices rose or fell, the first question is: which prices? It might be the median sale price, which is simply the middle price when all the sales are put in order. That tells us something about the homes that sold during that period. It doesn’t track what happened to the value of every individual home.

For example, if more large, expensive homes sell this month than last, the middle sale price can rise even if similar homes aren’t selling for more. The opposite can happen when more lower-priced homes sell. That’s an illustration of how the numbers work, rather than a claim about this month’s market.

Prices may genuinely be moving as well. The headline alone can’t tell you how much of the change comes from prices and how much comes from the homes that happened to sell.

Then there’s geography. A national figure brings together markets across the country. Florida’s figure combines very different cities and communities. Even a county includes neighborhoods with different price ranges, types of homes and reasons people want to live there. Demand can strengthen in one while weakening in another, leaving a countywide number that describes neither particularly well.

Some measures follow repeat sales of the same properties to reduce the effect of that changing mix. They’re useful for understanding a broader trend, but they still describe a group of homes. A neighborhood with very few sales also needs care: one unusual sale can make the numbers jump around.

So when you see that prices are up or down, don’t automatically apply that percentage to your home or the one you’re considering. The question is whether that trend actually shows up in that neighborhood and that type of property. Sometimes it does. Sometimes the local story is quite different.