Anyone wondering why the real estate market is taking so long to recover from the bursting of the bubble in 2007 should consider the price swings over the past decade.  This information is from the LowellDeeds blog which shows the median sales price of deeds recorded during a given year.  While it is not limited to home sales, it counted only those deeds with a price more than $50,000 and less than $1 million.  The number of deeds from each year is shown in parenthesis after the price:

• 2002 – $185,000 – (1646)
• 2003 – $216,500 – (1803)
• 2004 – $237,900 – (2156)
• 2005 – $254,000 – (2237)
• 2006 – $246,000 – (1599)
• 2007 – $223,750 – (1392)
• 2008 – $180,000 – (1131)
• 2009 – $170,000 – (1102)
• 2010 – $174,950 – (1036)
• 2011 – $165,000 – (983)
• 2012 – $169,900 – (978)