[The NAR released their 3rd quarter report this week showing continued strength in the housing market [CNN].](http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/14/real_estate/buying_selling/prices_going_south/) The CNN article is focused on an anticipated slowdown.

The clues the author presents are:

* Builder pessimism
* New-home sales declining
* Developers have to drop prices to move inventory.
* Inventories rising
* Sell times are up

The takeaway with this article is basically that without double digit, skyrocketing appreciation, the “party is over.” However, in the same breath, the article concludes that we will see flat to 5% annual gains through 2007. The URL to the article is “prices going south.” That seems to infer falling prices doesn’t it?

“Regionally, the South recorded the slimmest gain, at 7.7 percent, while the West had the highest – 18.8 percent. The Midwest (13.1 percent) trailed the Northeast (13.2 percent) slightly for second place”[Chart of 147 markets [CNN/Money].](http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/nar_3q05/index.html#table)