Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"There really are. There are two big problems that affect tracking home prices that we don't have when, say, tracking the prices of eggs or the price of a loaf of bread. One is that homes vary in their characteristics. So the homes that you may be tracking the prices of this year may not be the same as the homes last year in terms of size and amenities and so forth. Also homes sell infrequently."

"So tracking home prices is much more difficult. And that means there are several different measures out there that do suggest what home prices are doing. For example, one commonly heard tracking price is simply to look at the prices of homes sold today - whether they be new homes or existing homes - compared to the price of homes sold last year. Again, the problem here is that the characteristics of the homes may differ, so that you may not be comparing apples to apples. Now, there are a couple of ways around this. One is to look at repeat sales, that is, track the same house over time. You also have the problem there that the same house doesn't necessarily stay the same. People can make additions both inside and outside the house. Then thirdly there is a statistically constructed constant quality home that the federal government tracks. That has its own problems. So the bottom line here is there is no perfect way to track home prices. So when people hear some measure of home prices quoted you should read beyond the headlines and see what exactly is being followed."