Being both a real estate attorney and a real estate investor, looking for interactive tools to watch trends in the sector is critical.
Check out one of these tools at S&P Dow Jones Indices -
What is interesting is from the 10 year high in Jan 2007 of 327.46 the crash in real estate was severe. It has taken 8 years to recover back to 327.90.
Of course, none of the Midwest is included in this index but keeping an eye on the national trends has value.