A few snippets buyers should be aware of....

• The pace of home sales bottomed out in 2010.  Sales have been improving since that time.
   
  
• Median home sales prices bottomed out in 2011.  Sales prices have been (slowly) improving since that time.
   
  
• Buyers were able to negotiate most heavily in 2011.  The average list price to sales price ratio has been improving since that time.
  

That is not to say that buyers should hold back on making any offers -- after all, there are still some over priced homes on the market -- but buyers do need to realize that (it appears that) we are now past the worst of the housing downturn.