BOSTON -- Buyers and sellers are carefully crunching the latest housing numbers, and in Massachusetts they tell a complex story.

NewsCenter 5's Janet Wu reported that single-family sales are down double digits compared to October 2005. In fact, in 20 of the past 21 months, sales have been off. It reflects the most sustained slowdown since the bubble burst of 1989 to 1991.

One Duxbury house has been on the market for about one year now. Two weeks ago, the sellers dropped the price yet again. It is now $60,000 less than where it started.

Several miles away, homeowner Robert Burnham can relate. His experience is nearly identical.

"There is a house we would like in a retirement community, which we are not able to move. We are very much like many people my age that can't get out of their home to retire," he said.

The numbers released Tuesday show that in Massachusetts, single-family home sales last month compared to one year ago were down nearly 15 percent. When compared to median home prices between the same two months, they dropped nearly 7 percent.

"It means we're still in a real estate slump. We are still seeing a lot of houses on the market. Buyers and sellers can't quite come to an agreement," said Tim Warren, of the Warren Group.

But compare the median selling prices of the first 10 months of last year to this year and the decline is less than 4.5 percent. Realtors said that's because business was much better this fall compared to the summer.

"I'm not sure that the numbers suggest good news, but I think that what I'm seeing in the marketplace is that we've, perhaps, turned the corner," said Donna Wood, of Sotheby's Realty. "There are now a lot of buyers entering the marketplace, and that has not been historically true. In November and December, it's usually very quite."

"Well, it means that it's probably a great time to buy," Warren said.

Burnham has decided not to drop his price again. He's taking his house off the market for the winter, making a few changes and then will try again in February. Warren said that he thinks it's a good strategy.

"I think we're going to continue to see some declines in prices through the end of this year and it will probably start to flatten out the first half of next year," Warren said.

Most housing experts agree with Warren, saying the so-called slump will be less severe and shorter than the last correction of the 1990s, which saw declines for five years in a row.

This time, they predict that it will last just over a year, and they attribute it to low interest rates, rising income and solid job growth across the country.