The Boston Globe has this follow up on yesterdays numbers. "Across Massachusetts, the average number of single-family homes for sale each month during the first quarter of 2006 rose by 16,467, to a record 55,338 homes, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors said. Homes are piling up on the market because sales have slowed dramatically in the past year. Sales of single-family homes fell to their lowest April level since 1995."

"'Prices are going to decrease,' predicted Alan Pasnik, a Warren Group analyst, though he declined to speculate by how much. 'Large inventories depress prices, because buyers have more choices, and you have a larger pool of possibly desperate sellers,' he said."

"As sellers' anxiety rises, house-hunters such as Hannah Welsh take it slowly. She is looking, with her husband, for a single-family in Shrewsbury, where they own a condo. Welsh is noticing that more sellers are dropping their prices. 'We've been able to look in a leisurely way,' she said. The glut 'is great for us.'"

"People in the real estate industry attribute the larger inventory to a return to a 'normal market' after years of sizzling demand. But (researcher) David Iaia said the cause is an unusual convergence of demographic, psychological, and market factors. 'It's a lot of factors working together,' Iaia said. Housing supply 'can spiral up faster than you would think.'"

"Slowing sales are one reason: As properties sit unsold, new properties come on the market, expanding the inventory. Last fall's sudden chill in the market prevented many people from selling their homes, so they put them back on in spring."

"Even with the slower sales, investors and homeowners are still motivated to try to sell now, with prices still at near-peak levels, to cash out 'while the gettin's still good,' Iaia said."

"Michael Tuttys' neighborhood is a microcosm of a powerful force at work in Massachusetts' real estate market: a record glut of homes for sale, which is likely to cause prices to fall in coming months. Tutty endlessly sizes up his competition. He learned that one house in his Shrewsbury neighborhood has the same floor plan but lacks the upscale light fixtures, maple cabinets, and Jacuzzi tub he and his wife paid extra for."

"He watches prices like a hawk: One seller recently dropped the price of a two-bedroom, like his, by $10,000, to $399,900, dangerously close to his $389,900 asking price."

"He got a blunt reminder recently of how fierce the competition is. One prospective buyer stepped into his home for a showing, having viewed three others in the neighborhood. 'He walked in,' Tutty said, 'and said, `This is number four.'"