Home Prices Plunge Record 15.3%, Boosting Sales

US home prices took an unprecedented dive in December, Bloomberg reports, with prices of existing units dropping 15.3% over the same month last year—the biggest drop on record, and probably the biggest since the Great Depression. Sales, however, unexpectedly ticked up 6.5% in December, the National Association of Realtors announced. “I don’t think it’s a clear sign of a revival in the housing market,” one analyst said.

“You have to put it in the context” of bad news the previous month, he added. “It does seem that some cheap prices are attracting buyers. The housing market is very weak.” (More housing stories.)