Existing home sales, prices off in Sept.

In further evidence of a sharp slowdown in the once-booming housing market, sales of existing homes fell for a sixth straight month in September and the median sales price dropped by a record amount.

The National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that home sales fell by 1.9 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.18 million units, the slowest pace since January 2004.

The median price of a single-family home fell to $219,800 last month, a drop of 2.5 percent from the price in September 2005. That was the biggest year-over-year price decline in records going back nearly four decades. Home prices had also fallen in August and it marked the first back-to-back declines in 16 years.