According to CBS MoneyWatch, home values are finally starting to cool off after a year of explosive growth comes to a close.

According to Zillow's third-quarter real estate market report, home prices are up 6.4 percent year-over-year and up 1.2 percent from the end of the second quarter. While home prices are still escalating — and still need to return to pre-crash or even pre-bubble levels in many places — the pace at which they're rising has slowed.

“Far from being a negative sign, we're relieved to see more noticeable signs of cooling in the market," Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries said in a release. "If home values continued to rise as they have, relatively unchecked, we would almost certainly be headed into another bubble cycle, and nobody wants that.”