A summer of mounting inventory - and unrequited love - for home sellers?
The big news right now is the 30 percent drop in pending sales for May just reported by the National Association of Realtors.
That brought NAR's pending sales index to a new low, which, at 77.6, beats even one of the housing market's darkest months in generations, January 2009.
But Calculated Risk takes these numbers, does a little math, and comes out with some startling projections.
Based on current demand and inventory levels, the number of unsold homes - in terms of months of supply - could hit double digits by month's end, Calculated Risk reports.
The respected economics blog is projecting months of supply on the market will break into the double digits - or come very close - this month. Calculated Risk is projecting 10.4 months, but notes the actual number could fall a little below or above that.
Why is this significant?
As months of supply rise above the six months mark, there is mounting downward pressure on prices, the blog argues pretty convincingly.
The last line of defense for the faltering housing market may be low interest rates, which have fallen again well below 5 percent.
But so far the allure of rock bottom rates is not doing much to bring out those suddenly elusive buyers.
