Adding to this year's holiday cheer, home prices fell a record 13.2% in November while new home sales dropped to a 17-year low.  “November sales just collapsed,” Chief Economist at FTN Financial in New York told Bloomberg. “Price declines are accelerating. As bad as this is, it's going to be considerably worse in a month's time."

Even beyond December, next year's forecasts for the housing market are equally grim. And California, which is already digging for loose change in the sofa cushions to try to pay its bills, is projected to be the hardest hit by the continuing crash in the housing market.

According to a new anaylsis by Fortune Magazine, eight of the ten "Worst Housing Markets for 2009" are in the Golden State. Los Angeles is atop this troublesome list; it's projected to suffer another 24.9% dive in median home prices next year. The rest of the list follows, along with the projected decrease in median home prices for 2009 in parentheses:

2. Stockton, CA (-24.7%)

3. Riverside, CA (-23.3%)

4. Miami-Miami Beach, FL (-22.8%)

5. Sacramento, CA (-22.2)

6. Santa Ana-Anaheim, CA (-22.0%)

7. Fresno, CA (-21.6%)

8. San Diego, CA (-21.1%)

9. Bakersfield, CA (-20.9%)

10. Washington DC/Arlington-Alexandria, VA (-19.9%)

Needless to say, this will have all sorts of negative economic ramifications for the country (and for California in particular), not the least of which are more foreclosures, lower tax revenue, and less consumer confidence and spending. And we haven't even started talking about the bubble that is just starting to burst in the commercial real estate market.

Looks like it's going to be a less than happy New Year.