Existing home ugliness

I said the August existing home sales report would tell us a lot. And boy did it ever. Some quick and dirty stats from the report:

* August existing home sales were down 0.5% MOM from July. Down 12.6% YOY from August 2005.

* The "Months supply at current sales pace" indicator of inventory came in at 7.5 months, up from 7.3 months in July and the highest since 1993. The absolute number of homes for sale increased again -- to 3.92 million units from 3.86 million in July. That's yet another record.

* Here's the real kicker -- median prices overall (condo + single family) dropped 1.7% YOY to $225,000. That's the first YOY decline in any month since April 1995, and the second worst in U.S. history.