locked out of home directory??

[matt.price at utoronto.ca]

hi folks,

i've run into a weird problem -- i can't access the home directory of  
my main user on a system running ubuntu gutsy.  xsession fails with a  
less-than-ten-seconds error, and when i log in at the console i get  
the message:

No directory, logging in with HOME=/

if i try to
ls /home/matt
or
cd /home/matt
i get
Permission denied.

but if i ls -ld /home/matt it shows

drw-r--r-- matt matt   /home/matt

doesn't that seem bizarre?  anyway, it's a drag, and i'm writing this  
from a windows computer in my house, and it'd terribly disheartening.   
plus i have work to do!

thanks for your help,

matt