It will add to the Reserve Bank’s nervousness. It raises the risk that the housing market doesn’t slow.

This is primarily because of a decrease in investment and speculative real estate activity in those markets. That investment activity has been moving away from California and into Texas, where the housing market has not...

The weakness was primarily in the residential area. That’s consistent with the other data we’ve seen recently that suggest that the housing market is cooling off.

I was getting long all morning, because I can tell you the new houses on my street are not selling. A 10.5-percent drop reinforces what people are saying about the housing market slowing.

Five percent is looking more and more like the level where the Fed needs to stop. Anything beyond 5 and there’s a real danger to over-kill the housing market, which would have a negative effect...

That series of reports suggests inventories are building up in the housing market amid weakened business confidence.