Let's keep this simple, no hype, no sham and no talking things up. This is what happened to the US housing market last year:

More than half the national metro areas it surveys reported deflating home prices on a year-over-year basis.

The fourth-quarter report from National Association of Realtors showed largest price decline on record as markets with price declines now outpace those with gains.

As David Lereah said "2006 was a year of contraction".