THE “R” WORD IS BACK. The housing market has moved from cooling, through slide, into collapse. At least, that’s what many property analysts and economists are saying. They are hoping that the Federal Reserve Board’s monetary policy gurus take note when they convene in less than a month, and turn their “pause” in ratcheting up interest rates into a permanent stop. Or better still, change direction completely. Otherwise, the “R” will be deep and nasty.

The dwindling band of optimists suffered four blows last week. First, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes in July were at their lowest level since January 2004, and were 11.2 percent below last July’s level. That brought the inventory of unsold houses to 7.3 months supply, up from 5.1 months at the start of this year. As one would expect, the inventory overhang drove sales prices down in every region of the country except the South.