Editor's Notebook

HOUSING SLUMP - The nationwide decline in home sales is being keenly felt in Anne Arundel County. With national sales down another 4.7 percent in May - to the third-lowest level on record - many segments of the business community are suffering.

Real estate agents are the first to be hit, but after them come the title companies, lenders and real estate attorneys, who are also hurting. And government, whose revenue-raising depends on a stable housing market, is having to make significant cutbacks.

The latest news is not encouraging: There is no end in sight to the housing market slump. Prices are likely to continue their decline...