Consumer Confidence Plunges; Blame Housing

From the Wall Street Journal this morning:

American consumers, battered by falling home prices and soaring gasoline prices, are at their gloomiest in decades, raising fears they might cut back on spending later this year and tip the economy into a recession.

Housing gets a big part of the blame:

Consumer glumness is being fueled by an acceleration of home-price declines. Prices of single-family homes in 20 major cities dropped by 15.3% in April from the year before and are now back to 2004 levels, according to the Case-Shiller home price index released by Standard & Poor's.