Home sellers continue to battle foreclosure-laden banks for the attention of home buyers, some of whom find themselves in a better position than they have been in decades.
Yet some are hesitant to buy, thinking (fearing?) that prices will go lower and they could soon find themselves in a negative-equity position if they borrow money to close the deal.
And the latest blow to the mortgage market — the exposure of fraudulent documentation, broken chains-of-title that leave the ownership of the note and the property in doubt, and the suspension of foreclosures by banks — is giving players on all sides of the table reason to shudder.