The real estate market is any exchange of real property or some divided interest in property. This market includes primary residences, commercial development, raw land, apartment buildings, and time shares. There is no central exchange for the trade of these assets so that it tends to be inefficient, meaning there are few buyers for any one property and so prices will vary wildly for properties with the same utility.
Real estate tends to have long term growth at around the rate of inflation, with periods of substantial growth, retraction and placidity. Prices tend to change along with interest rates and the availability of capital since it is generally a highly leveraged asset and so one of the major price dictators is the cost of money.