Americans' long infatuation with owning a home, which even the economic collapse of 2008 could not kill, shuddered and stalled last month.

Housing sales in July plunged 25.5 percent below the level of a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday, as buyers lost the spur of a government tax credit. The steep descent surprised nearly every analyst and put the volume of single-family home sales at the lowest level since 1995.

Read the entire New York Times article here.