Confidence, or lack thereof, is also still keeping some sellers sidelined.

“There always is a tendency to time the market, which we know is becoming a little bit harder to do,” said Budge Huskey, CEO of Coldwell Banker in an interview on CNBC. “It’s an assessment of their overall impressions of the economy. I think there’s still a little hesitation. People want to see stronger economic growth, people want to see more progress made toward unemployment rates and just feel better about moving on.”

Lack of inventory means it is a seller’s market, despite so much hesitance by potential sellers themselves. That will keep home prices strong, unless and until more people decide to list their homes and home builders ramp up production, which they have been so far slow to do.

(Read more: $1 million summer homes)

It begs the question, what is housing worth today, market-to-market? A million dollars may buy a McMansion in Oklahoma, but barely buy a bedroom in Manhattan.

In an effort to gauge differing values, CNBC is trawling the million-dollar market again, this time in a “back-to-school” edition.

Starting on “Squawk Box” this Friday, two reporters will show two homes without disclosing their locations; they will document the interiors, exteriors, marketed features and one unique bonus offered by each home.

Real estate maven Dolly Lenz will decide which house gives buyers a better bang for the buck.

We will then reveal where the two houses are located, and with that added to the mix, Lenz will choose a winner. That house will then go up against the next mystery location on the next show.

(Follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #MillionDollarHome and see the early winners here as well).

—By CNBC’s Diana Olick. Follow her on Twitter @Diana_Olick.

Questions?Comments? facebook.com/DianaOlickCNBC

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101009330

I don’t know what the official end of the Spring housing market is, but it seems as if the experts have called the close, and it ain’t great.

Last week, after the folks at the vaunted SP/Case Shiller Indices put a period on the home price double dip, which others had been reporting for months — and The New York Times did a piece on falling home prices — it seemed like suddenly the housing watchers got nervous again.

Over the weekend, JP Morgan Chase’s housing analysts revised their outlook lower for home price recovery, “largely based on existing home sales coming in lower than expected.” While they expect that regional divergences will increase, “Our new base case is down percent from here (Q1 2011) and bottoming in mid-2012. We expect home prices to modestly improve over the summer months.”

Soon after, Credit Suisse’s Monthly Survey of Real Estate Agents announced: “Weak ending to the Spring season.” CS’s Daniel Oppenheim notes, “A lack of urgency continues as does a fear and hesitation of buying if prices still have further to fall.” This, we knew.

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