THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL IN housing, the source of so much of the turmoil in so many markets and already proceeding at a rather sickeningly dizzying pace, accelerated further in these memorable three months. For both existing and new homes, sales and prices continued to buckle and inventories continued to extend their unrelenting rise to the heavens. Wachovia, which knows a thing or two about real estate, mortgages and the like, relays the news that in August, sales of new homes sagged to an annual pace of 795,000 units, a breathtaking 40% below the peak set in October '05, and median...