Sales of existing homes plunged by a record amount in September while median home prices dropped by the largest amount in nearly a year, reflecting deepening problems in the troubled housing market.

Analysts said the current downturn is already more severe than the housing slump of the 1990s and they predicted before it is resolved it will rival the 1980-82 housing slump when the industry was battered by double-digit mortgage rates and a steep economic downturn.