I think that comparing on-line listings may be a good way to have a certain feel about properties, property styles and some prices. However, it is yet a far shot from understanding the price structures here. Locations may have a great influence on prices and not just by proximity to the see or not but because of comfort, services available or not, the immediate and sometimes not soooo immediate neighborhoods and issues like contamination of all sorts and foremost flooding history.
Even relatively short visits may not tell the whole story.
Additionally, here, almost everything is 4 Sale... at least posted. Many of these "listing" are kites flying very high. Brokers play along with it. Actually they will try to get listings any which way and owners who don't really seek to sell are sometimes taken by the suggestion of listing their property anyway, just at an exorbitantly high price... this in turn fools those who really want or need to sell to base their asking price first on those prices... until they realize that time pases and no sale. So then, you start seeing properties with their prices being slashed quite drastically.
In other words, it is very very difficult to get the right feel for what is a good buy and what is not. I good and honest buyer-agent should be of help, but I fear, that's the kind of guy most every agent around will want to make you believe he is, while he most likely is not.
... J-D.