Analyze same-home sales, on the other hand, and you're getting somewhere.

That's just what The Washington Post has done for D.C.-area jurisdictions, including two that the Baltimore area claims, Anne Arundel and Howard counties. The newspaper found that only 38 percent of home sellers who bought in 2000 or later made a profit in the first three months of this year, vs. almost everyone who sold in 2005.

You can see the graphic here and the story here.

It's not a simple matter to compare same-home sales over an entire metro area, but you can do it with data culled from jurisdictions. Analyzing this for the Baltimore area has been on my to-do list for a while, but a couple of things interceded. The financial meltdown, first of all. Then a baby. (Not that I'm complaining about the baby. She's wonderful.) I'm hoping to make some progress on this to-do item once I'm back at work.

You can help me out: If you've sold a home this year, let me know how it compared with the price you bought it for.