You’d think so but its not really. The real estate market is more than a bit funky so its best to track it multiple ways. Years ago I just tracked it that way and it did sync up with what was going on so i switched. With that said there is no perfect way, far from it. For me the key to to pick a couple and look at them consistently over time to get a feel for whats going on

As it is I need to make judgement calls along the way. Some examples, I remove new construction, twin homes that sometimes are listed as SFR, very small unliveable homes that are really land, homes that were sold off market and never really on the open market and a couple more categories. Its not perfect but its the best and I beleive most accurate way to do it.