Reports released yesterday and today show the nation’s housing market is reaching more low points during the start of the selling season:

• New home sales fell 1.6 percent in May, according to a Commerce Department report released today. Sales have declined four of the five months of 2007. New home sales are down 21.1 percent year-to-date.
  
  
• Home prices are also falling at the fastest rate in 16 years, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller home price index released today. Prices in 10 major U.S. cities fell 2.7 percent during the 12 months ending in April. Prices for a more comprehensive 20-city index fell 2.1 percent in the same period.
  
  
• The National Association of Realtors said yesterday that sales of existing homes barely nudged past flat line as unsold homes piled up to the highest levels in 15 years. Sales of existing homes fell 0.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.99 million. Sales were down 10.3 percent in April compared to April 2006. Meanwhile, inventories of homes on the market rose to a record 4.43 million. At the current sales pace, it would take almost nine months to sell the homes.