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CLICK ON RADIO TO HEAR: "Homebuyers' Dilemma: Has Market Bottomed?" from NPR Radio

The National Association of Realtors releases Tuesday its monthly statistics on existing home sales, and analysts predict another decline for the month of July.

Sales took a sharp dive after a federal tax credit for first-time home buyers expired at the end of April. Economists now say it’s unlikely the housing market will experience a significant recovery until the country’s job market improves.

Even markets that were not hit as hard as Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix are experiencing some pain. Denver didn’t have the run-up in prices over the past decade those other cities did, but it’s still taking much longer to sell homes.

Bob Lynn, co-owner of Peak Property Development Co., knows that.

“We’re a fix-and-flip company,” Lynn says. “We buy houses, fix them up and sell them.”

Inside a three-bedroom house east of downtown, Lynn points out all the changes he made so the house would be more appealing to buyers. He raised the ceiling, put new granite counters in the kitchen and installed wood floors. The sales price is close to the median for this neighborhood at $295,000.

“I expected $325,000,” says Lynn, and it took nine months to sell.

For more:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129389569