INSTANT VIEW: Home prices fall 18 pct in Oct

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prices of U.S. single-family homes in October plunged a record 18.0 percent from a year earlier, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released on Tuesday that indicated a U.S. housing market in the throes of a deep recession.

KEY POINTS: * The composite index of 20 metropolitan areas fell 2.2 percent in October from September. * The price decline, both on a year-over-year and month-over-month basis, came in worse than expectations based on a Reuters survey of economists. * S&P said its composite index of 10 metropolitan areas declined 2.1 percent in October from September for a 19.1 percent year-over-year drop, also a record.

COMMENTS:

RUDY NARVAS, SENIOR ANALYST, 4CAST LTD, NEW YORK:

"It was not that far off of expectations. The markets are not really doing much on this -- you saw a selloff in Treasuries before the data. Markets are sort of playing the thinness game rather than looking at what is going on with the data."

KATHY LIEN, DIRECTOR, FX RESEARCH, GFT FOREX, NEW YORK:

"The numbers are certainly very bad. But we are seeing not much of a reaction in the currency market because this was the October report and the November data for existing and new home sales already told the story about the poor state of the U.S. housing market. But there is one silver lining though. The pace of the decline seems to have slowed during the month."

MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: U.S. equity index futures little changed after data. BONDS: U.S. Treasury bond prices hold gains after data. DOLLAR: U.S. dollar remains lower versus major rivals.