More home sales hinge on 'I'll buy if I can sell'

The Boston Globe suggests the "frothy" real estate market in their area may be cooling down:

since January in Massachusetts, 8,385 houses have gone back on the market after a deal to sell unravels -- 900 more than the same period last year, Jan. 1 through Sept. 12, according to MLS Property Information Network.

Massachusetts home sales, which hit a record in 2004, are declining. The slowdown has had no effect yet on the median price of a house, $375,000, up 7 percent since July 2004. But real estate analysts and agents said contingency offers are part of a broader trend in which sellers in a softening market are not facing up to the fact their house is worth less than they had hoped and therefore are reluctant to lower the price in order to complete a sale.