Overheated housing market is cooling

Selling a house the past few years has been easy. Put up a "For Sale" sign. Host an open house. Sift through multiple offers. Pick a buyer willing to fork over more cash than you initially asked for. Then brag about how much you got.

Median prices declined 5.7% in September, one sign that housing is cooling.

That was then. And now? While there's still a plentiful pipeline of home buyers looking to make a deal, finding one willing to make a split-second decision to buy and pay whatever it takes to get in the door is no longer a lock, real estate agents say.

In what could signal a mood shift in the feverish real estate market, tales of bidding wars and 30% annual price gains are quietly fading.