When people quote financial figures, especially anything to do with real estate, I actually assume the opposite unless they explicitly state "month over month."

When people quote financial figures, especially anything to do with real estate, I actually assume the opposite unless they explicitly state "month over month." It may be a bit counter-intuitive at first, but it is the convention of financial reporting to be implicit this way. As JacobAldridge points out, it is used to account for seasonal variation; an article that looks to month over month figures would seem anomalous for this same reason. But it takes knowing some of the nuance of the industry and how it is reported to understand the what and why of the convention. I'm not a realtor, nor do I work with realtors; I just find that sector interesting to read about, enough so that some of the nuance rubs off. :-)