The residential real estate market in Atlanta has been dampened, but then it was never a house-on-fire like some of the nation's boomtowns.

Atlanta has consistently been near the top of the charts for home sales, yet not for price increases. Home values rose but did not soar simply because the supply of new homes — many aimed at first-time buyers — grew so fast.

"And because we never went up that much, we never have to come down that much," said Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University.

National prices on average are down 1.4 percent during the past year, according to an index calculated by MacroMarkets, a New Jersey-based consulting firm co-founded by economist Robert Shiller.

In contrast, Atlanta prices are up 1.7 percent during the past year — weakening but still positive.

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