Celine Damonte and Warren Ganda are a modern-day twist on Carol and Mike Brady.

Between them, they have five daughters ranging from ages 11 to 21. The youngest two are hers; the three oldest are his. Damonte and Ganda plan to get married and move in together, blending their families. (Both are the custodial parents.) They are in contract to buy a five-bedroom house being built in Oakley, big enough to accommodate their entire brood. It will be ready in late October.

But before they can afford a new house, Damonte and Ganda need to sell their existing homes. Each already owns a three-bedroom home in Antioch - where there are 1,374 homes on the market, or 1 out of every 22 residences. Damonte, 39, a Web site designer, knocked herself out to make her sun-splashed contemporary cottage resemble a Pottery Barn tableau. She landscaped, painted, decluttered, cleaned and decorated.

"I ran around for two weeks like a crazy woman trying to make everything look new," she said. "Those darn HGTV shows had me in a tailspin."

Her Realtor, Janice Spencer, broker-owner of Windermere Signature Collection in Antioch, has marketed the house aggressively. Its $475,500 price (down from $495,500) is moderate for the area, especially considering that it has a pool.

In seven weeks on the market, the house has been viewed by just one prospective buyer.

"How can there be no buyers? None?" Damonte asked. "It's not even a buyer's market; it's a nobody market. We're not flipping houses or trying to cash in. We just want to move on with our lives. We're in a tough spot."

Ganda, 42, a print buyer who lives a couple of miles away, said there are dozens of "For Sale" signs in his immediate neighborhood, so he isn't optimistic about the prospects for selling his house. He plans to put it on the market right after Labor Day.

The couple know they are luckier than many. They have owned their homes for several years, so both have equity. If need be, they can all live in one house and rent out the other, but that would mean seven people in a three-bedroom home.

They joke about housing the five girls in one home and themselves in the other.

Damonte said, "One would be all grown-up with cheese and crackers and wine and the other would be ..."

"Cookies!" her 11-year-old daughter, Catherine, interjected. "And no coasters!"

"It could be a reality show - Kid House/Parent House," Damonte said.

The softening real estate market has affected Antioch much more severely than other parts of the Bay Area. Developers have been drawn to its affordable land, building new homes that make the older ones less desirable. As a more-moderate-income area, it is home to many people who got subprime, adjustable-rate mortgages and now can't keep up with their escalating payments. These homeowners are forced to sell their homes, or else lose them to foreclosure, after which banks put the homes on the market.

The result is a flood of inventory. At the current rate, it would take 21 months to sell all the homes in Antioch now on the market.

Understanding the market dynamics is little consolation to the couple who have watched local prices fall before their eyes.

"A couple years ago, homes in this area were selling like hotcakes, within days, literally," Damonte said.

Last December, Damonte's house was appraised at $510,000. In January, an almost-identical house one block away sold for $575,000. In March, the house next door sold for $505,000.

Now Damonte, who already has cut $20,000 off her asking price, is considering reducing it still more.

Earlier this year when they signed papers for their new, unbuilt home - "back when it was just dirt," Damonte said - they assumed each of their homes would sell for about $510,000. That meant they could readily afford the $742,000 house. So far, they've put down $7,000 to hold it. But like most people, the rest of their money is tied up in their respective houses.

Pulte Homes, the developer, has been very understanding. "I called and asked, 'Is it hopeless?' " Damonte said. "They said, 'Oh, no, no, no, don't run away.' "

Pulte said it would accept a 15 percent down payment instead of 20 percent and is open to renegotiating once they get an offer on one of their houses, according to Damonte.

After devoting so much energy to trying to sell their houses, planning a wedding has gone on the back burner.

"We really want to get married a few weeks before we move into the new house because we want to make everything official before we move in together," Damonte said. "We might do a city hall thing and then plan a bigger wedding in the spring."