Prices for homes fell 18.7% in March from a year ago according to the S&P/Case-Schiller Home Price Indices [1].

The drop was actually worse than expected and there is no sign of a bottom.

A few cities posted record declines as Detroit, Minneapolis, and New York fell hard. Phoenix and Vegas were the worst performers with declines 36% and 31%.

Some real estate lobbyists are pounding the table and saying this is the bottom, but futures traders on the Case-Schiller index [2] are not projecting a bottom until the second half of next year.

So far they have been the most accurate gauge for real estate prices.

Of course real estate has had a huge impact on the stock market as real estate prices topped several years before the market did and helped fuel the collapse in the banking industry.

It's been a tough and wild investing environment and requires a return to stock trading basics [3]. We expect the collapse in bank earnings won't end until real estate puts in a real bottom.