Selling a new home is getting harder and harder: just ask the builders who are being forced these days to entice potential buyers with expensive inducements like free swimming pools and fancy kitchen cabinets.

At the same time, the torrid pace in the existing-home market is slackening, as prices are leveling off and properties are staying on the market a lot longer than they used to.

Adding it all together, a variety of experts now say, the housing industry appears to be moving from a boom to something that is starting to look a lot like a bust.

“Housing has had a great five-year run,” said Edward Yardeni, chief investment strategist for Oak Associates, a money management firm in Akron, Ohio, and a longtime bull on the economy. While he still does not expect a housing downturn to damage the overall economy severely, he predicts that the housing industry itself is entering a longer decline.