Thank God! The last housing report of the week

The Commerce Department reported(.pdf) declining sales of new homes in January and plunging home prices in what was, mercifully, the last housing report of the week.
Sales volume dropped 2.8 percent for the month to an annualized rate of 588,000, a full 33.9 percent below the level of a year ago, and now at a 13-year low.

Inventory climbed to 9.9 months of supply and the median price fell a record 15.1 percent on a year-over-year basis, from $254,400 to just $216,000.

Not surprisingly, an increasingly skittish home buying public has become increasingly reluctant to buy property knowing that prices are likely to continue to go down.