Owners don't budge as houses sit unsold

PalmBeachPost reports:

Nationwide, the number of vacant unsold units in the first quarter of this year set a record, the U.S. Commerce Department said recently, continuing a sharp upward trend that started last year.

David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, puts the number at an "excess of about 1.4 million."

Swelling inventory caused the National Association of Realtors to create a mini-stir last week when it revised its forecast to predict that existing-home prices would fall this year for the first time since the Great Depression.

The 1 percent predicted drop - to $219,800 - is not as earth-shaking as it sounds, given that home prices in 38 of the 50 states declined in 2006, local real estate consultant Jack McCabe said.

Heh.