Consumer confidence and home prices plunge

Consumer confidence hit afive-year low. And here’s the worst part — economic analysts were far off on their predictions:

The Conference Board, a business-backed research group, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index plunged to 64.5 in March from a revised 76.4 in February. The March reading was far below the 73.0 expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson/IFR.

High gas prices, combined with the continued housing slump, are likely the top culprits. And, speaking of “continued housing slump,” U.S. big-city home prices

were off 11.4 percent in January. It’s the sharpest drop since such information started being collected in 1987

The decline, reported today in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index, means prices have been growing more slowly or dropping for 19 consecutive months, the story reports.