These are homes reported through MLS.

What happened in 2005

As you can see the median list price shot up in first half of 2005, then kind of leveled off in the second half of the year. While this was going on the number of closings dropped by close to 40% from July to December.  This is partly because of seasonal factors, but probably was a result of crazy prices just driving buyers away. 

Meanwhile, the number of properties listed coming onto the market increased by almost 50% from January '05 to September.  It stayed at very high levels until the Christmas season when inventories always drop because of family obligations. 

The median sale price really went crazy in the first 2/3 of 2005.  Speculation, low interest rates and the effect of the always heightened summer market, forced the median from the $220k level to around $250k in August, 2005.  The next few months are pretty interesting to look at.  If you look at the green line (properties listed that month) against the light blue column (median sale price) you can see the law of supply and demand at work.  When the number of properties went up the median price went down.

2006, so far

As you can see, the median asking price took a huge jump after everybody and their brother put their house on the market in January, 2006.  The number of new listings on the market virtually doubled from December, 2005 to January, 2006.  The median sale price dropped again, and the number of closings fell to a very low figure, about half of the number of closings just 5 months prior.

Since January, things have been somewhat more stable, but there is a  downward trend for median list price and an  up and down effect with median sale price.  As I said elsewhere, I believe that median list price is an inadequate yardstick for tracking Real Estate market conditions because it really gauges buyer's budgets, more than their buying power, or home values.  The number of new listings has remained very high, with an average 1800-1900 new properties being listed very month.  This is an indicative of people trying to cash out, speculators selling vacant homes, and builders putting dozens of unsold inventory into the MLS.  All these factors are continuing to put serious downward pressure on sale prices.  The number of closings has remained at a level that is about 30% below last year's, on average.