The strength of the housing market this year continues to surprise, despite rising home prices and slightly higher interest rates.

We expect that 2005 was the high-water mark. Interest rate levels are the key factor.

Longer term, the interest will be in finding ways to handle the communications of vital information from the home to medical professionals that know what to do with the information. Say you have a network of nurses that care for an aging individual. There is a need for them to periodically connect, as well as a need for frequently sharing health-care information among medical staff, family, and friends.

It's not a substantial increase.

The small increase in mortgage rates in November may have prompted many prospective homebuyers to jump into market in order to take advantage of pre-approved mortgage rates.

In general, the higher end of the market is holding up much better than the lower end.