I'm not sure I follow your logic; if you're concerned with buying a house now, then prices from years ago are irrelevant. You can speculate that prices have risen too quickly and that they'll revert back to their earlier level, but that's ultimately just speculation. Comparable sale prices from the past few months are the thing to look at, to determine an offer that's likely to be accepted.

One thing to keep in mind about list prices: if the sellers do a good job of estimating the current market price, then the house will sell quickly. If you're checking listings infrequently, there's going to be some sampling bias in the listings you see; overpriced houses that aren't selling will be disproportionately represented in active listings.