Just too scared to sell?
If so, well then join the club.
An often overlooked problem in our now completely dysfunctional housing market is the bruised and battered seller.
Yes, buyers are increasingly hard to find as the bad economic times roll on and home prices fall again.
But sellers who have a half decent home to unload - at a reasonable price - are the other endangered species out there in the real estate jungle.
And it is an especially chronic problem here in the Greater Boston housing market, which is overloaded with overpriced, aging homes in need of work.
Fred Breimyer, regional economist for the FDIC in Boston, offered up a telling stat when I caught up with him the other day.
The number of home listings on the market in Massachusetts has dropped roughly 25 percent since the spring of 2010, when the $8,000 home buyer tax credit sparked a short-lived surge in home buying.
Listings in the state are down to just under 34,000 homes, according to Breimyer. In fact, we are just a few thousand homes above the lows hit in 2009, when the real estate market had practically flatlined.
This recent Zillow survey offers some additional insights - a third of all homeowners across the country still think the worst is still to come.
Moreover, 28 percent of homeowners surveyed believe their local real estate prices will fall in the next six months, up from 20 percent in the first quarter.
If anything, potential sellers are getting more skittish about putting their homes on the market, not less.
Are you a buyer frustrated by a lack of sellers with decent homes? Or are you a potential seller sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the market to turn?
What's your take?
