When housing prices were going through the roof and people were making huge profits selling their homes at high prices, some observers worried that there was a housing “bubble.”

Now, with the housing market in decline, we won’t say that a bubble has burst, but we will say some of the air is escaping from the balloon.

Because of a decline in the housing market, economic growth slowed to a 2 percent pace in the July to September quarter. Worse, the outlook is for a continued slowdown in the beginning of 2007.

“The housing market is profoundly weak,” said Ken Mayland, president of Clearview Economics. “The economic slowdown really took hold in the third quarter, and, I think, it is going to basically continue through the first half of next year.”

This underscores an important fact about the economy. It can be temporarily bolstered by an irrational buying trend, but eventually it returns to reality. 2007 appears to be headed for a reality check.