We've said many times that Austin's market has stayed stronger than the national market as a whole. The first chart below shows Austin average home prices vs. the nationwide avaerages from 1/99 through 2/08. The second chart shows a comparison of median prices over the same period. The national average and median price curves have pretty much the same shape. The Austin average rose more quickly than the median in 2005-2007, and is now falling more quickly. What does this mean? It means that more expensive houses were sold in Austin during that period and that either those expensive homes are not being sold as quickly and/or the prices are coming down.