Just three ZIP-code areas of Rhode Island escaped a drop in median house prices in the first half of 2009, according to the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.

And those three areas are not places usually associated with high real-estate prices.

Instead, they included two rural areas and one very urban location: 02898, Wyoming, a village that includes parts of Richmond and Hopkinton; 02829, Harmony, a village in eastern Glocester; and 02903, downtown Providence.

In releasing a set of real estate statistics by ZIP code on Friday, the Realtors’ group hopes to send the message that in the Ocean State, all real estate is local.

Although headlines often focus on the overall highs and lows of the market on the state and national levels, the ZIP-code sales data show just how varied the local markets can be. In the past, the association has released data only by city and town, although two sets of statistics are usually provided for Providence — one for the affluent East Side, and one for the rest of the city. The association’s new statistics tracked Realtor-assisted sales in all 91 of Rhode Island’s ZIP code areas, comparing January to June sales in 2009 and 2008. But there is no comparison data for 20 of the 91 areas because no sales had occurred in those areas this year.

And the association acknowledges that in some ZIP-code areas, the number of sales is so low that the data can’t be statistically meaningful.

For instance, the data for Providence’s 02903 area, which shows a median price increase of 168 percent, is based on just two sales in 2009, compared with four in 2008.

For the rest of the state, the range of the median price drop was from as little as 2 percent in the 02825 ZIP code in Foster to 77 percent in the Oakland section of Burrillville, 02858. (The Oakland data was based on just one sale in each six-month period.)

Still, “the new ZIP code data can help buyers and sellers see what’s going on in their own neighborhood — or the ones they’re interested in looking in,” said RIAR president Paul Leys.

cdunn@projo.com