The September numbers are out for existing home sales. "Sales of existing homes fell for a sixth straight month in September and the median sales price dropped on an annual basis by the largest amount on record, further documenting a lukewarm housing market."

"The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of previously owned homes fell by 1.9 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted sales pace of 6.18 million units, the slowest sales rate since January 2004."

"The median price of a single-family home fell to $219,800 last month, a drop of 2.5 percent from the price in September 2005. That was the biggest year-over-year price decline in records going back nearly four decades. Sales of condominiums fell by 3.2 percent. Condominium prices fell by 3.2 percent"

"'The worst is behind us as far as a market correction — this is likely the trough for sales,' said David Lereah, the Realtors' chief economist. 'When consumers recognize that home sales are stabilizing, we'll see the buyers who've been on the sidelines get back into the market.'"

"Regionally, existing home sales in the South were 9.0 percent below September 2005. The median price in the South was $184,000, down 1.6 percent from a year ago. Existing-home sales in the Midwest were 13.7 percent lower than a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $169,000, which is 2.3 percent below September 2005."

"In the West, existing-home sales were 23.8 percent lower than a year earlier. The median price in the West was $332,000, down 4.3 percent from September 2005. Existing-home sales in the Northeast were 13.4 percent below September 2005. The median existing-home price in the Northeast was $259,000, down 5.1 percent from a year earlier."

"Compared with a year earlier, sales were down 14.2 percent, the Realtors group said. Home resales have fallen every month since March. The number of homes for sale fell 2.4 percent from August to 3.75 million, remaining at a 7.3 months' supply. 'There's a stabilization in the inventory-to- sales ratio, but at a very high level,' said Ed McKelvey, senior U.S. economist with Goldman Sachs Group Inc."

"Home sellers have been reluctant to lower prices, while buyers wait for better deals, a standoff that leaves homes sitting on the market longer, even as mortgage rates fall."

"'As long as you've got interest rates where they are now, which is near an all-time low, interest rates can't be blamed for the real estate market being soft,' Toll Brothers Inc. CEO Robert Toll said. 'Right now the real estate market is relatively low, generally speaking.'"

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "U.S. house prices won't keep pace with inflation through 2008, industry economist Douglas G. Duncan predicted Tuesday.The pace he expects, 1% this year and next, would be the slowest since the first quarter of 1995, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight."

"The country is experiencing the recoil that follows a boom, Duncan said at a news conference during the 93rd Annual Mortgage Bankers Association Convention in Chicago. Housing sales hit record peaks, with enormous price gains, in the last five years, he said. Now it's over."

"'The market is normalizing. The last couple years were above what we expected,' said Duncan, the Washington, D.C.-based trade group's chief economist and senior vice president. 'This may lead to more of a down bounce than we expected.'"

"Home price gains have surpassed inflation nearly every year since the Great Depression, industry experts say. That won't happen again until at least 2009, according to Duncan's downgraded forecast. Both supply and demand reversed course, and so did overall market conditions, the economist said."

"Home sellers flooded the market this year just as many potential buyers stopped shopping. The reversal likely began last fall, but was disguised because sellers made concessions not in house prices but with incentives, he said."

"The nation's inventory of 'for sale' homes is higher now than it has been in many years, Duncan said. 'It's clearly a buyers' market, and lots of buyers are sitting on the sidelines waiting' to see if seller desperation will get them a better deal, the economist said."

"Better deals may be in the offing on some new homes. 'Builder inventory is costly to carry,' Duncan said."

"Market psychology is different in the resale market, where emotions often reign and homeowners may pull their houses out of the market rather than mark prices down just to move on, he said. 'These people haven't yet decided what to do,' Duncan said. 'That will play out in the next 12 to 18 months. That puts us at mid-2007 before we might be able to say, 'We passed the trough,' on the nation's housing slump."