Foreclosure filings in Charlotte and Sarasota counties dipped from January to February, according to numbers released Friday, but what those numbers mean to the local housing market varies depending on whom you ask.

To someone like Tampa-based foreclosure attorney David Hicks, whose Alliance Law Firm has offices throughout the state, the numbers are a shifting bit of nonsense, open to any interpretation that fits the point you’re trying to make; for Sharon Neuhofer, president of the Punta Gorda-Port Charlotte-North Port Area Association of Realtors, it’s a sign of better days ahead, a slowly but surely rebounding market still trying to redefine itself after the bust.