Real estate agents are given to euphemism—you know what "cozy" means in an apartment ad—but it would be hard to sugarcoat what's going on in the housing market. At Long & Foster, the largest U.S. privately owned residential real estate brokerage, sales volume was down 16% in the first nine months of 2006. In its home city of Washington, D.C. and nearby, the inventory of available single-family homes is 59% higher than at the same point last year and is at the highest point in eight years. The condo market is beginning to crater, too, with the median price 5% lower than it was at the end of 2005.
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