"In terms of the price, yes. Certainly sellers are more willing to bargain on price," he says. "We've seen many markets in North Carolina where the prices of new homes for sale go down. Some of our coastal counties' prices have gone down a lot -- touble digits. Other counties, not so much.

"Certainly when you have a slow market the buyer is in the driver seat. Now the problem is that compared to say a year or two ago financing the sale of a new house is more expensive because interest rates are higher.," he adds. "Interest rates are up about a percentage and a half since one and a half years ago, so you really do need a lower price to compensate for those higher financing costs.

"On average you need that price of the house to be about 15 percent lower today than a year and a half ago in order for that to be breakeven, between that and the fact that you have to buy and finance at a higher rate," Walden says.