Salary expectations: how do you answer? - 4 months and counting

A recruiter asked for my salary expectations on a first call as I look for work as a home health aide. There are 5 people counting on me, so I am trying to be careful. I looked up ranges in Raleigh and they vary a lot. How do you research fairly?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it last year, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.