Look at this chart from Calculated Risk carefully. If you need to see a bigger version, click on it or here.

This is the scary part. It looks like we may hit a point where the inventory of homes for sale in the country will exceed the sales for the year.

I wonder if that will the tipping point when new buyers come back into the market and sellers really make the deals that will move homes.

Of course, once that happens the chart will quickly invert as homes will come off the market and sales will increase.

If you look at the last terrible real estate market from 1978 to 1982 home sames and inventory were almost equal and then sales took off.

Lets hope it happens again.