NEW YORK – The price of single-family homes sold nationwide fell more quickly than expected this October compared with a year ago, according to a Standard & Poor’s / Case-Shiller survey released today, Bloomberg News reports.

The report shows that housing prices fell 6.1 percent in October, in the sharpest year-over-year decline since the S&P / Case-Schiller pricing index was established in 2001. The index had been expected to fall 5.7 percent in October, after declining 4.9 percent in September, based on the median forecast of 12 economists polled by Bloomberg News. “The current state of the single-family housing market remains grim,” Robert Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC and a professor at Yale University, said in a statement. Year-over-year price declines have been seen in every month of 2007.

The decline may continue. 2008 may see home sales nationwide decline by about 8.9 percent, after dropping 25 percent this year, based on a Dec. 13 forecast by Fannie Mae. The glut of homes on the market created by the sales slump will continue to drive prices downward, analysts said.

“With supply overhang enormous and mortgage financing tougher to obtain, home prices are going to decline considerably further in the quarters ahead,” Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at New York forecasting firmMaria Fiorini Ramirez Inc., told Bloomberg News.