BELMONT -- When Rich Lee and his wife moved to Boston from San Francisco recently, they decided to rent so they could house-hunt at their own pace.

"We've been kind of poking around with no urgency," the 32-year-old money manager said as he toured an open house here last Sunday.

A lack of buyer urgency may be one reason why the four-bedroom contemporary he visited has been on the market for three months, its asking price cut gradually to $1.095 million from $1.35 million.

Not long ago, when the housing market was hot, too many buyers chased too few houses. House-hunters needed a sense of urgency then. If they saw something they liked, they had to pounce.

"If you have to sleep on it, you'll never sleep in it," realtors could say. But now, amid signs that things might be tilting toward a buyer's market, the number of houses for sale is on the rise in many communities, and many houses are taking longer to sell.

After six "phenomenal" years, the market experienced "a bit of a slowdown" in September and October, said Rick Loughlin, president of the Central New England region of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. "Inventory is definitely on the increase. It's not a strong seller's market. Since the summer, it's started leaning more toward a balanced market."

If a spot check of Belmont open houses last Sunday is any guide, some buyers think they have time to be thorough and choosy in their house-hunting.

Ahmed Tawakol, a doctor, and his wife, Cherise Beineke, a lawyer, rent in Lexington. They've been looking since April to buy a home closer to Boston. Last Sunday, they visited a three-bedroom town house, then priced at $619,900 and since cut to $609,900.

"The rental market is soft, so we have it good," said Tawakol, 38. "We don't have to rush. It doesn't seem like prices are skyrocketing the way they were earlier. But really great places go quickly."

It's such cautious behavior that prompted Marlene Mallory of Buyer One, a buyer's agency in Westford to say, "All of a sudden, it got very quiet."

That quiet could simply be the normal seasonal slowdown as winter approaches. Ken Snyder of Re/Max Old South in Boston, Lee's buyer agent, had another theory: "The combination of Red Sox fever and the election distracted many buyers."

Though there's been an uptick in early November, others wonder if the market is about to shift into a new cycle, one in which prices rise only moderately, or even flatten or fall. Loughlin remains upbeat. Noting that mortgage rates remain near historic lows, he expects 2005 to be another strong year, but "probably not as good as 2004."

In Belmont, Kate Berseth and her husband, Steven McNulty, inspected an open house. They own their own businesses, and have two children, ages 5 and 18 months. They've thought about moving from Cambridge to a community that has better public schools.

"We've been looking off and on," Berseth said. "But then we say, 'No, no, we're going to stay in Cambridge.' "

Nearby, a three-bedroom Dutch Colonial had its first open house, attracting 35 lookers -- but no immediate offers. Its $669,000 asking price was a big draw because it's just above the average sales price of $655,000 for a Belmont single-family house, said Carole Brousseau, a senior vice president who manages Coldwell Banker's Belmont office.

Meanwhile, Matt and Danielle Friend of Lunenburg hadn't planned to buy a new house until, by chance, they found a perfect one in Holden, near his sister, who provides day care for the couple's daughters. A house in Holden would shorten the trips they make from home to day care to jobs. Matt Friend, 33, a program manager for a software development company, works in Waltham. Danielle Friend, a veterinarian, works in Dracut.

But trying to buy a new house was easier than selling their old one. In August, they put their home on the market for $404,900. When comparable homes nearby dropped their prices, they did, too, ultimately to $375,000. They got an offer, but the buyers backed out when they couldn't sell their home at the price they wanted. The Friends then had to withdraw their offer on the Holden house. Their Lunenburg home is back on the market.

"We have three potential buyers considering our house right now, and they're taking their time," he said.

Back in Belmont, Brousseau, Coldwell Banker's office manager, crunched the week's numbers. Last Sunday, her office held 15 open houses that attracted 149 visitors. For the same Sunday a year ago, the office held 20 open houses that drew 161 visitors. None of the three open houses the Globe visited had drawn an offer by midweek.

"There isn't as much urgency as there was in the spring," Brousseau said, "but there are still a lot of buyers out there."

Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.