Home Prices Fall Again; Rate of Decline Sets Record

Home prices continued to nosedive in May, a signal that the housing crisis may be worsening and a red flag for the credit markets and Wall Street, reports the New York Times. Every region covered by the S&P/Case-Schiller home-price index showed a drop compared to May 2007, with the rate of decline setting a record for the 21-year-old metric.

In both year-over-year and month-to-month misery, the Las Vegas and Miami markets continued their domination. Meanwhile, consumer confidence rebounded slightly in July, rising for the first time in 7 months and beating estimates. "The modest improvement in expectations, often a harbinger of economic times to come, bears careful watching over the next few month," one analyst told the Wall Street Journal. (More housing crisis stories.)