Okay, here’s a big fat surprise: home prices fell at a record pace in October. We already knew that November retail values did the same. We knew the subprime mortgage crisis has been reverberating through the real estate and credit markets. So here’s just one more reminder of the econalypse.

The New York Times reports:

Home values in America’s 20 largest metropolitan areas plunged at a record pace in October as the fallout from the financial collapse reverberated through the housing market, according to data released on Tuesday.

The price of single-family homes fell 18 percent in October from a year earlier, according to the closely watched Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller Housing Index. All 20 cities reported annual price declines in October; prices in 14 of the 20 metropolitan areas surveyed fell at a record rate…

Last week, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of previously owned homes, which dominate the market, fell to the lowest pace in years. Home values tumbled 13 percent in November from a year earlier, the sharpest drop in more than 40 years.

A glut of unsold houses is weighing down the market, and housing is likely to deteriorate further in 2009 as the jobs picture continues to weaken.

 

Unemployment is now at 6.7 percent, its highest point in a decade, and economists predict it will rise to 8 or 10 percent next year.

For all five people in the United States who actually have the money to buy a house, I guess the time is yours. Get out there and capitalize on the trainwreck while you can. We’re a country of capitalists, remember?