The price numbers represent the median house price but do not tell you the actual $ amount. So a single price number by itself doesn't really tell us anything about how much a house costs. But when you graph a series of these numbers over time, it shows you how prices have changed over the years.
The same is true with the rent numbers. The rent numbers represent the median rent price but do not tell you the actual $ amount. I only use this data to see how rent prices have changed over time.
The ratio (price/rent) is also meaningless if you just look at a single value. What's important here is to look at how that ratio has changed over time.
