Much worse than analysts expected. In fact, it’s the largest single-month drop of existing home sales in four decades. Apparently buyers weren’t rushing out to use the first-time home buyer tax credit. Go figure.

The National Association of Realtors says sales fell 16.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.45 million in December, from an unchanged pace of 6.54 million in November. Sales had been expected to fall by about 10 percent, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

So far this “recovery” entails steady to rising unemployment figures, falling retail sales, and plummeting existing-home sales. If I didn’t know any better I’d say this isn’t really that strong of a recovery.