America's housing market roared to new heights in 2005, despite dipping sales and prices in the year's final quarter, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.

Has this longtime bull market crested?

"That's the million-dollar question." said Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans, a Livonia, Mich.-based company. The year-end price dip "could just be a blip," Walters said, or a sign that 2005 was the finale to double-digit annual price gains.

Nationwide, existing single-family homes ended the year with a median $213,000 sales price. That's 13.6%, or $25,500, higher than a year earlier but $2,900 below the median price fetched three months earlier, the Washington, D.C., trade group's figures show.

Rising mortgage-interest rates dampened market pace in the waning weeks of 2005, said David Lereah, the group's chief economist. The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage average rose from 5.76% in the third quarter to 6.22% in the fourth quarter, according to mortgage financier Freddie Mac.

"We are entering a period of a more normal balance in supply and demand," Lereah said in a statement accompanying the sales report. "The modest dip in appreciation is an early sign of a market adjustment."

Milwaukee and Green Bay were among a host of metropolitan areas following that undulating price pattern, but Madison's prices never flagged.

In Milwaukee, the median single-family resale price climbed to $219,700 in third quarter 2005 before sagging to $211,600 in the fourth quarter -- still a 6.2% gain for the year. Green Bay's median price climbed to $155,200 in the third quarter before dropping to $150,600 -- a 4.1% gain for the year. Madison rose steadily in a year's time from $208,100 to $224,600.

The price dip coincided with a volume dip, but not enough to stop U.S. housing resales from setting a new annual peak. National Association of Realtors' market estimates show 7.07 million sales in 2005, better than 2004's 6.78 million. Wisconsin's 2005 market profile, due today, is expected to reflect strong market performance.

"A nice increase overall, even though fourth quarter let us down," was how ShelBaker, general sales manager for First Weber Group in Waukesha, put it.

Winter's business lull shows signs of making way for a perky spring, Baker said.

"Buyers have a strong presence out there these days," he said.

Unlike a year ago, when sellers held the reins of market power, buyers are not in such a giving or forgiving mood, Baker said. "For sale" signs are here, there and everywhere.

It's too soon to call this a buyers' market, Baker said. "But it's a very level market. The message these days is, you have to price your home very sharp" or risk home-shopper snubs.

Most economists see a good but not great housing year ahead.

"We've been on a meteoric rise for three or four years now. Houses can only double in value every five or six years for a while before plain economics bring them back in line," Walters said.

His prediction: "A gradual deceleration over time to the traditional 2 percent to 4 percent a year. Whether it's 2 percent, 4 percent, 6 percent or 8 percent this year -- well, I'd be flipping a coin. A lot depends on what happens with interest rates, which still are low historic 40-year averages, and the economy, which is steady. But I'd say this is the year where we come out of the stratosphere of double-digit gains."

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