Today, buyers increasingly are naming the price -- but some sellers haven't gotten the message.

"The sellers are always the last to learn it's a buyers' market," said Wayne Gaddy, co-owner of Raleigh's Chandler Gaddy Realty.

There always has been some haggling between home buyers and sellers over price, repairs, upgrades and other factors. But deal-seeking buyers and reluctant sellers are creating a gridlock in the Triangle housing market that could worsen the glut of unsold homes and drive prices down further.

But when -- and how much to reduce -- your home price is a tough decision, especially if sales in your neighborhood have been robust.

Mark Maloy listed his 3,400-square-foot home in Cary's Carpenter Village in February 2007 for $509,000, figuring it would sell quickly. After all, comparable homes nearby were selling briskly.

When a buyer offered $485,000, Maloy declined, even though it would have meant a $49,000 profit in just two years.

But buyer interest dried up as the housing market declined. Maloy kept reducing the price but didn't sell the house until two months ago -- for $465,000. After broker's fees, Maloy figures he broke even on the deal and wishes he had lowered the price at the beginning instead of making $2,000 monthly mortgage payments for an additional year.

"We could have put it on the market at $480,000 and someone would have swooped it up right then and there," said Maloy, who moved to North Raleigh. "I guess it was greed."

The Triangle avoided the worst of the national housing slump and the average home sales price, which was $235,175 in March, has continued to climb. But that trend is misleading because sales of less expensive homes are down, which pushes the total market's average price up, say housing experts.

Some people can still get the prices they want. In North Raleigh, for example, there is only a two months' supply of homes between $150,000 and $199,900. In Apex and Cary, the supply in that range is three months. Owners not offered what they want can wait to see whether a higher bid comes in later -- and it might.

But the national forces hurting the housing market are increasingly trickling down to the Triangle.

Nationally, median home prices fell 7.7 percent in the first quarter, the biggest drop in 29 years, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Locally, 42 percent of home listings had price drops in March, up from 32 percent a year before, according to the Triangle Multiple Listing Service.

Those drops come as homes are taking longer to sell and the inventory of unsold homes grows. The number of unsold homes is 14,492 -- almost 38 percent higher than during the peak of the housing boom two years ago. Meanwhile, the average days on the market in March was 92 days. That's up 11 days from a year ago, according to Triangle Multiple Listing Service data.

"We've been so spoiled because people were always coming in to buy, and now we're not seeing the numbers, because they're unable to buy," said York Simpson Underwood broker Shields Pittman, who has sold homes since 1972. "Some sellers are unwilling to deal with it. I don't think there's as many unrealistic expectations ... but there's still a fair amount of unrealistic expectations."

Sellers aren't the only ones out of touch with reality.

"Buyers think they can come in here and steal something, but then they get their face slapped a couple of times, and they get a dose of reality," Pittman said. "If they listen to their agent and do some analysis, they can see there are not giant swings from list price to sales price."

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