Now that we have shaken off the holidays, the question is "What is the real estate market doing now?"  This past fall saw a slowdown in total sales causing lower mainland AVERAGE prices to take a downward ajustment. BUT, since mid November, the number of new listings coming onto the market fell (as is usual for this time of year) and buyers took advantage of the slowdown and bought up a large portion of the remaining inventory. Good properties sold quickly and those sellers not prepared for the slowdown (i.e. bought first) took 3 - 5% off the list price just to get their house sold.