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Have you ever been shocked by the headline of a San Diego real estate article? And then, once you read and understood the real estate statistics used to reach the shocking conclusion the headline so simply stated, felt substantially less shocked?

Most writers use the median or the average to gain broad perspectives on home values. What if we simply had more high-end homes sold one month? These stats fall short without further analysis.

Another real estate statistic used to create scary headlines: time period. In an ideal world, we would display line graphs moving over time and view the trend in real time. But that's not good for headlines, nor easily digested by the public--so what we get are stats such as: 'Mission Hills homes drop 10% this month." Real Estate writers take the median or average home sale in Mission Hills for April, for example, and compare this number to May's. Did they mention that there were only 6 homes sold in April and 9 sold in May? Did they mention the difference in size or condition of the 6 vs. the 9? No, because that wouldn't get them readers.

Yet another twisted real estate statistic currently widespread: 'San Diego real estate drops 5% in May." The writer is simply taking the May numbers from this year and comparing them to last year's. Did they mention that last May's numbers were higher than any other month of the year? No, because that wouldn't be a good headline.

Look past the headlines. Read the real estate statistics yourself, and seek to understand what the real estate writers are using to reach the conclusions made. Most times I find that the meat of the article is much more moderate than the headline suggests.