How does a 3% increase constitute plummeting?
Only when the media is trying to get rid of the current President. The media desperately wants an economic meltdown, and this is one of their current sermons.
If the housing market ever "plummets" like the Internet stock bubble, the nation will be in a depression worse than the one in the '30's. Unlike an investor's shares in "Whatwasithinking.com", houses have an intrinsic value. They may be over-priced. They may be hideously overpriced. They may go down sharply in price. But everyone has to live somewhere. If houses all lost 70% of their value nationwide (as has NASDAQ), it's all over for everyone.