azstar reports home sellers are benefiting from the reduced inventory of homes for sale. The drastic drop in availability has reached 50 percent in some areas of California since last year, and has dropped 53 percent in San Diego since last summer. Los Angeles has seen a decrease of 49 percent since a year ago, and Seattle is down 41 percent. Realtor reports of 146 large markets, 144 had a lower inventory of homes last month than a year ago. Analysts suspect the reason is homeowners with negative equity see prices finally starting to slowly rise, and not wanting to take a big hit, they have decided to wait until prices come back up. MHProNews has learned banks with foreclosed properties are doing the same thing.

(Photo credit: Greg Vote/Getty Images)