Real estate agents have been pushing the same message for months: Buy now. Interest rates have stayed relatively low and dipped even lower in recent days; inventory levels are up. Sellers are motivated.

But they say buyers, instead, are indecisive and hesitant. An e-mail I got yesterday from Don Dutton, a Windermere broker in Puyallup, said, “The thing I can’t get over is current buyer’s preference to wait out this slow market … It seems buyers want to feel the unbridled enthusiasm of a seller’s market before getting interested in making a home purchase.”

While rates are down, real estate agents and mortgage brokers say it is harder today with tightened guidelines to get a loan than it was this time last year, which could have something to do with buyer hesitation. (My Sunday story highlighted the impact such difficulties are presenting for homes priced under $250,000.) But I think, too, that buyers might be trying to time the market – wait for the low point, so they don’t buy now and find out three months later that prices have since dropped. (The median home price in Pierce County fell year-over-year in September and October; November numbers come out Thursday.) Agents say playing such a waiting game is risky and causing buyers to miss some good buys.

So, buyers, any thoughts? Agents?