From CNN. Banks haven’t put many of their forclosed housing inventory on the market yet. That means the inventory of unsold houses is probably much higher than the 4.2 million number that’s being reported.

But banks might hold back listings in areas where they already have lots of homes for sale in order to avoid flooding the market, according to Michael Youngblood, a financial analyst and founder of Five Bridges Capital, an asset management company, “If lenders have a significant number of properties in a limited area, they may want to stagger putting them back on the market,” he said.

Not good for homebuilders or homeowners.

Disclosure: short CTX, long a house