Sales are down.  Money.com posted a figure of an annual rate of 6.12 units of homes sold.  This figure equates to an 8.12% drop in annual sales! 

Why the drop in sales?  Confidence in housing is weak right now, you can't go anywhere without seeing something negative about the housing market.  The sub prime market has really taken a nose dive recently and because of that guidelines and requirements to qualify have become increasingly stricter, making it more difficult to get people into a home.  Foreclosures are on the rise as more and more people have to refinance out of their short term fixed loan.  Were short term fixed loans bad?  No, but if you didn't plan ahead to make sure you were prepared for when you would have to refinance into a new loan at the end of your fixed term, you could be in trouble.  This is what is leading to the sharp rise in foreclosures among other things of course.