For the first time since 1950, the median price of homes in the U.S. is forecast to fall as much as 2 percent this year alone.

The median price is the point at which half the homes cost more and half cost less.

So-called “experts” had long claimed that a drop in the median home price could not happen on a nationwide scale because all real estate is local. So much for the experts!

Worse still, the research firm Global Insight expects the drop will peak at about 4 percent by 2009.