"There are a lot of ramifications, both good and bad, depending on whether you are a buyer or a seller," says Dr. Walden, an economist with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

"Clearly if you are trying to sell your home and you had been in a hot market and now you are not, you are going to have a tougher time. So you are probably going to have to lower your price more, you are going to have to do some innovative things in order to get a buyer.

"On the other hand if you are a buyer it’s a buyer’s market. You are going to see a greater supply of homes out there, and you are probably going to see sellers willing to negotiate more on price.

"Now for people who already have homes, a slower housing market means a slower buildup in their equity, so they are probably going to have to save more out of their paychecks.

"And then, finally, we must not forget the impact on employment in an area. The housing marketing in most areas is a very large user of labor. So if you have a slowdown in housing, particularly a slowdown in new homes built, that’s going to have an adverse effect on employment."