The desperate search for a forever house

[Turnipinatutu]

Is the housing market grinding to a complete halt? Or is it just our area?

Been looking now since the beginning of the year and although we saw the odd vague possibility early on, before we had a buyer, nothing we were desperate to offer on.
We now have a buyer and nothing even worth a viewing has come on for weeks and weeks!
We want to stay in the area, as we're settled here, but we're looking in a rough 5-10 mile radius, so not too specific.
Looking to spend 450k to 500k so a fairly decent budget....but nothing....
Where are all the sellers?

Lifeofpo - of course no one should force anyone to move if they don't want to. Irrespective of house size. However, if people put their house on the market then you can assume they want to move/sell right? In our area the big houses on the market are mainly owned by older retired people who want only asking price. Sometimes it feels like the older couples don't really want to move as badly as say a younger family who have run out of space.