The news on Monday was not good. It looked, in fact, like the housing boom was over and that was the thrust of a lot of the media headlines. Not that a market crash seemed likely, but it did seem as though the housing bubble had developed a tiny little leak.

The National Association of Realtors released its monthly report on the sales of existing homes for the month of October and NAR figures showed a 'moderate' decline in activity for both single family homes and condominiums. Total existing home sales including single-family houses, condos, townhouses, and co-ops were down 2.7 percent from September figures to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.09 million units. September sales had been at a rate of 7.29 million. This rate still put sales 3.7 percent above the seasonally adjusted sales figures for October last year.