Now that South Florida's sizzling housing market has cooled, you might wonder whether this is a repeat of a previous slowdown.

Is this market, defined by a glut of for-sale signs in front yards and a leveling of record prices, reminiscent of the recessionary periods of the 1970s and '80s, the pre-housing boom years of the late 1990s, or … none of the above?

While some experts say the soft market of 2006 resembles previous slumps, others insist this downturn is different because it comes after the five-year boom and won't be as devastating as those in years past.

"In my opinion, there are so many things that are unique about this market that it can't be compared to any other," said Lewis Goodkin, a Miami-based real estate analyst. "We have never had a market … where the investor and speculative buying played such a role in generating the big numbers."

Other factors in the 2006 slowdown that weren't present before: multiple hurricanes and the resulting property insurance quagmire.

Mike Dooley, president of the Florida Association of Realtors, said, "If we're lucky enough to go through the 2006 season without another storm hitting the continental United States, that will go a long way" toward solving the housing -- and insurance -- problems.

He expects the regional housing market to bounce back relatively quickly, but others say things won't improve until 2008.

"Yes, there could be further weakening," said David Dabby, a Coral Gables-based housing consultant. "Because price increases went so high so fast, it could be many years before significant appreciation occurs again. But I don't see a sky-is-falling situation."

In July, for the first time since April 2000, the median price for existing single-family homes in Broward County fell from the previous year. Numbers are expected to be released Monday that will show whether or not that trend continued in August.

For the most part, the median price in Broward County rose steadily during the 1980s and '90s. Palm Beach County, however, saw a big drop during the recession of the early 1990s, when the median price dropped from $126,100 in 1991 to $110,200 in 1992.

Looking back, South Florida's sales of existing homes fell 25 percent during the recession of the mid-1970s, 50 percent in the early 1980s and 17 percent in the early 1990s, Dabby said. So far this year, sales have dropped by about 35 percent. "Keep in mind that when the market peaked in the summer of 2005, the number of sales that was occurring was incredibly high," he said. "A 35 percent decline at this point is not as dramatic as it sounds."

Echoing that sentiment is Nicolas Retsinas, director of the joint center for housing studies at Harvard University. He said interest and unemployment rates remain relatively low. That wasn't the case during the recessions of the 1970s and '80s.

Other analysts aren't as optimistic.

Wayne Archer, director of the center for real estate studies at the University of Florida, said the overbuilt condominium market in South Florida reminds him of the 1970s.

"You get the sense that people have forgotten all the lessons that they learned," Archer said.

Deerfield Beach analyst Jack McCabe expects the South Florida market to get worse before it gets better. He's so sure that he has organized investors to buy properties at deep discounts. And Miami analyst Goodkin also is advising clients who expect prices to drop.

McCabe does see positives in the downturn. Middle-class consumers who have been priced out of the housing market will be able to afford homes, he said. And out-of-state companies might view the area more favorably.

The downturn, he says, reminds him of the 1980s.

"People just quit buying," McCabe said. "Prices went down by 30 percent and stayed flat for years. The ones holding the bag lost a lot of money."

For years, residents were drawn to Florida because it was a low-cost alternative to California and New York. During the 1980s and '90s, home prices were flat in sections of Palm Beach and Broward counties and increased only incrementally in others. At the time, buyers easily could find spacious digs for $150,000 or less.

But the climate changed in 2000, when investors nationwide moved money from the stock market into real estate after the dot-com bust on Wall Street. They bought properties, watched them rise in value and then "flipped" them to other buyers for large profits.

That trend inflated demand and drove up home values. The median price of a single-family home in Palm Beach County at year-end 2000 was $138,600; by year-end 2005, the median had soared to $390,100, an increase of 182 percent. Over the same period, Broward County's median shot up 143 percent to $361,100.

Looking to capitalize on the huge price appreciations, many people put their homes on the market. This year, the listing of homes for sale have doubled in Palm Beach County and tripled in Broward.

But as values soared, so did property taxes, and people soon found that they couldn't afford to move within South Florida.

With supply outpacing demand, this year home sales slowed and prices began to stabilize.

"We were, in effect, a victim of our own success," Goodkin said.

Some homeowners are selling and leaving for Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, saying those states have a lower cost of living and a better quality of life.

Michael Skiera, 48, a native South Floridian, built a five-bedroom house on five acres near Boynton Beach for $300,000 in 2001. Two weeks ago, he listed it for $3.5 million because he and his family are moving to northwest Georgia.

"The numbers are just staggering," Skiera said of the recent run-up in prices. "This has become the new California."