(ASHEVILLE) -- Home prices are still falling, and Mike Butrum with the Asheville Board of Realtors said buyers are not confident they have hit bottom yet. The board's government affairs director said that is bad news for the economy as a whole.

"This country has never had a recovery from a recession that it was not led out of it by the housing market and the housing market is not in any shape at this point to lead this country out of any recession.  We're still in bad shape," said Butrum.

Butrum added that no segment is in worse shape than the high-end market. He says given current sales rates for homes priced at 800-thousand dollars and above, the Asheville area is sitting on an 8 to 9 years supply of homes.

(Thanks to: WWNC)