Real-estate update

WASHINGTON - Sales of existing homes posted a tiny increase in October but the median home price fell by a record amount. Analysts forecast more price declines in coming months as the once-booming housing market undergoes a painful correction.

The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that existing home sales edged up 0.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.24 million last month. It was the first increase after seven consecutive monthly declines.

However, the median price for a home sold dropped to $221,000 in October, a decline of 3.5 percent from a year ago. That was the biggest year-over-year price decline on record.

Seems to me that that the economy doesn't suck, so we likely won't see a big drop in prices. It'll continue to drop, I figure for about 4 months until the weather improves and then level off.

It really all depends on the mortgage business. If they continue to sucessfully sell the funky arms and no-interest loans, prices won't drop much. If people start getting back into 15 and 30 year fixed loans, I think the prices will drop quite a bit, at least on the $500k+ houses.

Of course it all assumes the interest rates stay level..