I personally think in an initial interview this is a topic that shouldn't be brought up. The HR rep said, "We'd like to know that we have the same ballpark figure that you have in mind, otherwise we might not be on the same page." I suspect this is data gathering for the HR department. I deflected a response, but the HR rep persisted by saying, "Are you thinking of a salary in X - Y range?" This left a very bad impression in my mind because soon after she asked the salary question, she revealed that they had a final candidate for the job, so basically the interview was just a cursory one.