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The  real estate market in many parts of the country last year was pure passion. You saw a home, you placed an offer as fast as you could, and then hoped you got lucky. There was not enough time for rational thought or proper due diligence. If you asked for a home inspection odds are you would lose the home. This scenario played out  in  markets such as Washington DC, Boston, New York, Florida, and California.

Now the market has turned into a seduction. You have to woo the customer. There is no such thing as putting the home up for sale and having people come to your door. And the agents  that came into the real estate industry in these markets the last few years have not learned how to sell a home. They know how to do the mechanics, but the hard core selling and marketing is a skill they never had to acquire.

So now when you sell your home you will have to be patient and smart. You will have to have you home in great shape. You will have to price the home correctly. And you will have to find the right agent, not just get the  neighbor who you do not want to offend and help out. Otherwise, odds are the home will sit.

Today, however, that’s all changed. Although prices have softened only slightly so far, bidding wars are now a thing of the past as buyers mull over an inventory of unsold homes that has tripled since the same time last year. “We just don’t know if it’s the right time to buy anymore,” says Ruth Zitner, who has been shopping for a home in the neighborhood for the past year. “So we’ve decided to just wait and see.”

That attitude is fast turning the housing market on its head, not just in Chevy Chase but also in once hot neighborhoods from South Florida to San Francisco. The nation’s largest home builders are reporting rising cancellations of orders for new homes. Meanwhile, nationwide sales of existing homes fell by 8.9 percent in June, compared with a year earlier, and by as much as twice that in places like Boston.

With sellers increasingly anxious to unload their properties, inventories of unsold homes have swelled to more than a six-month supply, an increase of over

50 percent in a year. That’s considered a key threshold signaling the transition to a buyer’s market that is finally beginning to drive prices down. “Sellers have tried to hang in there and get their price,” says David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s. “But there comes a point where they’ll have to give in.” via US News and World Review

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