Part of the problem with market recovery across the nation is that when the real estate market was booming, many people had secondary homes. Since the bubble popped, however, there are fewer people who can afford second homes. Also to blame were the wantonly poorly thought out loans that were available to many buyers who couldn't afford them, stimulating the building industry to pump out more homes.
Consequently, there are currently more homes than are actually needed in the country; this discrepancy is likely to have a large impact on where the level of stock on the market balances out eventually. Banks cannot hold on to this inventory forever; it is far too costly. It just may be that some vacant homes will need to be repurposed for other markets instead of letting them languish.