The past year, 2006, marked the lowest volume of annual sales since 1999 with less than 47,000 new and existing houses and condominiums sold in the four county Sacramento area according to DataQuick. As reported in a Sacramento Bee story, “’06 housing stats tell a scary tale,” the inventory of available homes has dropped from August 2006 highs but still ended up with just about 11,000 homes on the market in the four county area.

For Judy Gluck, hope is blooming anew.

Gluck and her husband, Frank, first listed their duplex near Woodmont Boulevard in Green Hills last October, not long after they bought their dream house on a nearby street.

There were no takers. Since then, they’ve been forced to pay the mortgages on both houses while they wait for the brisk sales that characterized the market until the end of last year to resume.

But Gluck believes the changing season — when home shoppers usually return to the market after their holiday hiatus — will bring good fortune.