Home prices are projected to fall for the rest of the year, the National Association of Realtors said Monday, with sellers being forced to accept a new reality: Buyers now wield the power, with the supply of homes for sale at a 13-year high.

The median-priced U.S. single-family detached home — half cost more, half less — fell 1.7% in August to $225,700, compared with a year ago. The decline is no doubt jarring to sellers, who haven’t seen prices fall nationally since April 1995. The price drop was also sharp, the second-steepest in 38 years.

Sales of existing homes, meantime, fell for the fifth month in a row.

"The housing bubble has burst; this is just the confirmation," says Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors. "The housing market is in trouble right now. I think it’s finally in the process of moving toward finding a bottom," which he expects will take six months.

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