It seems like we just cannot bust out of the current housing slump we have been in this year. Today we got more negative news, as the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell by 8 percent during the month of September.

September's drop is the largest one-month decline since all the way back in 1999, and resulted in home prices dropping yet again. During the month, the average price for existing home sales fell to $211,700. With this price drop, we have now seen prices fall 13 of the past 14 months, putting prices 4.2 percent lower than the same period last year.

Every segment of the country felt the pain last month, with the Northeast taking the biggest hit as sales dropped 10 percent. The West saw sales drop 9.9 percent, the Midwest experienced a 7 percent decline and sales in the South fell by 6 percent.
Just how bad is it out there? Well, if sales were to remain at September's levels, it is estimated that it would take 10.5 months to eliminate the current inventory of unsold homes. This represents a record long length of time.

Things are definitely ugly out there, and apparently only get worse with time. The current picture is leading many analysts to believe that we can expect to see another interest rate cut next week from the Fed. What do you think? Will Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke come through with another rate cut? 25 basis points? 50? What are your opinions on this?

[Photo: Sarah Gilbert]

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer