I would add to watch these leading indicators: days on market, inventory, HAI (housing affordability index), mortgage applications. You’ll need to work with a realtor to get the first two metrics.
As sdrealtor said, the media is great at telling you what happened 6 months ago in the market. When I listed my house in 10/05, only this site and a few bloggers informed of the bubble. Now, it’s in every media outlet. Even I missed the top by a few months. I took a 5% haircut on my offer.
