U.S. home prices plummet

By J.W. Elphinstone
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK -- U.S. home prices fell 4.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the sharpest drop since Standard & Poor's began its nationwide housing index in 1987 and another sign that the housing slump is far from over, the research group said yesterday.
One of the index's creators also predicted a significant chance of a recession as the economy contends with falling housing prices, spiking foreclosures and turmoil in the financial markets.
The odds for a recession are "over 50 percent," said Robert Shiller, chief economist for MacroMarkets LLC. Other economists have put the chance of recession at one in three.....