Existing-home sales in October were down nearly 21 percent from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors said today. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales was 4.97 million homes. The Realtors blamed the mortgage crunch that hit in August, saying the biggest impact to sales came in "high-cost markets that rely on jumbo loans."

The median price fell 5.1 percent to $207,800. Here too the NAR blamed mortgages -- fewer sales in expensive areas pulled down the median price, it said.

The association's mantra in recent months has been that real estate is all local, local, local, and in its press release today it repeated that message:

NAR President Richard Gaylord, a broker with RE/MAX Real Estate Specialists in Long Beach, Calif., emphasized that all real estate is local. “Keep in mind that home prices are up in 93 out of 150 metro areas, and there is a lot of confusion in the market from reports about national data. Broadly speaking, home prices in most areas are up modestly or fairly stable,” he said. “Areas with population or job growth are seeing the strongest home price gains.”