How bad will it get for the real estate industry? We found out last week that the NAr are liars… oh, wait… we already knew that… and our dismal resale home sales figures are even worse than we knew. Plus, with the lower sales prices, real estate commissions are lower on lower volume. The combination makes for hungry realtors, mortgage brokers, appraisers, inspectors, and other related fields.

The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos in the Bay Area was $338,000 in January, down 9.9 percent from $375,000 in December and down 3.4 percent from $350,000 in January 2010.

While December New Home Sales rose 17.5% from November, it was still the worst December in record. And, if it wasn’t for a 70% boom in the West, things would have been a whole lot worse.

Case-Shiller is a backward looking index. The increasing number of foreclosures, the complete collapse in new home sales, a massive increase in inventory, and the end of tax credits all suggest we are near the end of the line for this bounce in home prices.

Let me put it this way “There was a statistically irrelevant number of new home sales above $750K, somewhere between zero and 500″.