Here’s a familiar sounding sampling of what some pundits have predicted for the national real estate market over the years:

• "The prices of houses seem to have reached a plateau, and there is reasonable expectancy that prices will decline." (Time, December 1, 1947)
• "Houses cost too much for the mass market. Today's average price is around $8,000-out of reach for two-thirds of all buyers." (Science Digest, April 1948)
• "The goal of owning a home seems to be getting beyond the reach of more and more Americans. The typical new house today costs $28,000." (Business Week, September 4, 1969)
• "The era of easy profits in real estate may be drawing to a close." (Money, January 1981)
• "Most economists agree.[a home] will become little more than a roof and a tax deduction, certainly not the lucrative investment it was through much of the 1980s." (Money, April 1986)
• "The baby boomers are all housed now. They are being followed by the baby bust. By 2005, real housing prices will sit 40 percent below where they are today." (Harvard economist Gregory Mankiw, "The Baby Boom, the Baby Bust, and the Coming Collapse of Housing Prices." Journal of Regional Economics, Fall 1989)
• "A home is where the bad investment is." (San Francisco Examiner, November 17, 1996)
• "But the real question is, how will [housing prices] look longer term? As I've said in the past, I do not think that housing values will be higher five to ten years from now." (Yale economist Robert Shiller, quoted in Newsweek, January 27, 2005.

Numbers & Median Prices at Mid-September 2006:

Single Family Homes:

# SOLD: 1 Jan-Mid-Sept 2005: 453;

    1 Jan-Mid-Sept 2006: 302 – down 33%

Median Recorded Sales Price (1 Jan-Mid-Sept 2005): $522,000

Median Recorded Sales Price (1 Jan-Mid-Sept 2006): $597,400 – up 14%

& up 13% from $530,000 since 1 Jan 2006;

Days on Market: 60 (Jan-Sept 2005); 80 (Jan-Sept 2006) – up 33%

ACTIVE: 376 (vs.175 in May 2005); Median List Price: $698,900-

down 4% from $729,000 since 1st Quarter 06;   DOM: 101

Pending/Under Contract: 41; Median List Price: $597,500 –

down 8% from $649,450 since 1st Q. 06;  DOM:127

Vacant Residential Land:

# SOLD: 1 Jan-Mid-Sept 05: 270;

                1 Jan-Mid-Sept 06:  98 – down 64%

MRSP (1 Jan-Mid-Sept 2005):  $360,000

MRSP (1 Jan-Mid-Sept 2006):  $512,500  - up 42%

& up 35% from $375,000 since 1 Jan 2006;   DOM: 85 

ACTIVE: 323 (vs.106 in May 2005); Median List Price: $475,000 -

down 5% from $499,900 since 1st Q. 06;   DOM: 120

Pending/Under Contract: 10: Median List Price: $360,000 -

down 39.5% from $595,000 since 1st Q. 06;  DOM: 161

Natalie Kurz and Roy Grimm represent BUYER BROKERS REALTY of SEDONA, Arizona’s #1 Exclusive Buyer’s Agency.Their office is in The Old Market Place (282-2757/800-282-2959). Email: Roy@SedonaRealEstate.com.  For access to ALL Sedona MLS listings, visit award-winning: www.SedonaRealEstate.com. Call or email us for Roy’s report,

“21 Things You MUST Know Before Buying Real Estate in Sedona.”