The economy: How bad is it?

It's proven difficult for forecasters to keep up with the sliding real estate market.

The National Association of Realtor's tracks home sales in roughly 150 markets. The group's most recent reading, for the last three months of 2007, showed a steep drop in prices of 5.8% - the largest decline since it began keeping track in 1979.

As people's homes drop in value, that means they can't tap home equity to free up cash. A recent report by the Federal Reserve showed that Americans' percentage of equity in their homes has fallen below 50% for the first time on record since 1945.

Some good news: Seventy-three of the markets tracked by NAR showed price gains in the most recent quarter.

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