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After surfing the huge wave of home sales growth these past few years, Zephyr Real Estate President Bill Drypolcher is hoping to avoid a wipeout.

He knows home sales are poised to cool, given the Federal Reserve's repeated interest rate hikes in recent months and given the oversized rise in Bay Area home prices over the past five years. Homebuyers, he said, are too financially stretched to afford more price hikes.

"There has been too much inflation," Drypolcher said of prices. "The market in San Francisco needs a little more equity to the buyer."

During one week in November, Drypolcher said, "of 44 sales, more than a dozen went under the asking price, and that's a lot."

A lot? It's unheard of. As the bubble in City residential properties ballooned in the past decade, almost all of the homes went for more than the asking price. The situation we all need to be watching now is what effect a downturn in the market will have on some of the shakier financing that has sold a lot of local property in the past three or four years. If that begins to cave, look out below.