It was 1993, and William Jefferson Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd president of the United States.

The Buffalo Bills lost their fourth consecutive Super Bowl Game and became the only NFL team to do so.

A van bomb exploded beneath the World Trade Center in New York City, killing 6 and injuring more than 1,000 people.

More people died in the Great Blizzard of 1993 which brought record snowfall and severe weather from Cuba to Quebec, killing 184 and stranding people along the Appalachian Trail.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday was observed in all 50 states for the first time.

Unemployment was a staggering, 6.9 percent, the cost of a first class stamp was only 29 cents and Mosaic was the dominant Web browser.

The year 1993 was also the last time quarterly home prices tracked by the National Association of Realtors took a tumble.

It was in the first quarter of 1993, when the national median existing single-family home price last fell, falling by only 0.04 percent to $103,500 from $103,900 in the first quarter of 1992, according the NAR.

In the third quarter this year, that trend returned.

The median home price was $224,900 in the third quarter this year, down 1.2 percent from a year earlier when the median price was $227,600, according to the NAR's Third Quarter Metro Report.

No region escaped falling prices as existing single-family home prices fell in the South by 0.1 percent, in the West by 0.9 percent, in the Midwest by 2.6 percent and in the Northeast by 4.8 percent.

The regional declines came even as 102 metropolitan statistical areas continued to show home price increases, while only 45 areas experienced declines, with one area unchanged, NAR reported.

Condo prices, which began their fall earlier this year, took a bigger tumble, falling to a median price of $222,900, down 2.1 percent from the third quarter last year.

Like single-family home prices, condo prices rose in most metros. Thirty-one metros showed annual increases in the median condo price, while only 27 metros had price declines.

That could mean, where prices are falling, they are falling at a rate that is offsetting the rise in prices in most metros tracked.

"With the market in full transition, buyers now have choices and sellers are more willing to negotiate -- under these circumstances it's no surprise that overall home prices are slightly below a year ago. We expect this trend to continue in the months ahead, but we'll see modest appreciation in most of the country in 2007," said David Lereah, NAR's chief economist as sales continued to take a drubbing.

Total existing-home sales, including single-family and condo, were down 12.7 percent from the third quarter of 2005. Only ten states revealed increases in sales activity from a year ago.

Published: November 24, 2006

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.