Thousands of FOR SALE signs hits record

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Sue Kasun and her husband bought their cute Chestnut Commons three-bedroom home in East Austin two years ago. It's worn a For Sale sign for the last 100 days, and it still hasn't sold.

"It's starting to get a little tiring at this point, but I don't know," says seller Sue Kasun. "I'm just trying to roll with it."

Kasun is one of the thousands of people in Austin trying to sell their homes. In fact, there are more sellers right now than ever before in the greater Austin area. In the last five years, the amount of inventory has shown a steady climb.

According to the Austin Board of Realtors , in June 2006, 8,477 single family homes sat on the market. This June, that number is up to 11,749.

Good news for buyers -- but there aren't enough of those to go around.

"Buying right now, you can get a fantastic selection, so you can get the home you want." said The GoodLife Team senior associate Jack Mille r. "You can get a great price on it and you can have the lowest payment you're likely to ever have in your lifetime."

And one of the reasons Realtors say there is so much inventory? Interest rates and prices are at an all-time low, and many sellers are wanting to take advantage of that. The government's tax credit , which ended in April, encouraged first-time home buyers to keep looking for a new home even after the credit expired - but not enough to offset the increase in homes on the market.

'We have a number of our buyers or our sellers for whom that's true. They are selling because they want to buy, because they want to move up or move closer in to town, and we are still putting houses on the market," Miller said.

But Sue just wishes one of those buyers would fall in love with her house. She's done everything her Realtor suggested, staged her home, kept it neat and clean, priced it right. Now she's just keeping her fingers crossed.

"All the feedback is always excellent. With that kind of feedback, we have to believe that the house is going to move sooner or later," she said.