Who said that?

...'predicts that U.S. home prices will generally decline during the next few months.'
"I'm hoping for prices to drop,"
Sales have stalled partly because "the sellers are not bringing prices down fast enough,"
"They've been very stubborn."
A drop of 5% to 10% in California and southern Florida "probably would be enough to bring sales back,"
"The quicker we can get negative prices, the quicker we can get sales coming back,"

None other than David Lereah that's Who, The chief economist of the National Association of Realtors® in an article in the Wall Street Journal online (subscription required)
by James Haggerty- September 2, 2006.

And while I commend Mr. Lereah for finally fessing-up, as is often the case that fessing-up is overdue. The evidence of the need for a market correction has been widely available for quite some time.
The head honchos of the National Association of Realtors® are in a leadership role for the industry and in the eyes of the public. They have a responsibility to provide that leadership and not just act as cheerleaders or followers, reluctantly announcing bad news thats already been reported by many other sources.
The National Association of Realtors® has hoards of great information available to them, and they have a responsibility to provide timely, accurate information and frank and honest assessments and guidance based on that information, in good times and bad - just like all Realtors® are supposed to do.

Doing so would simply be doing the job the way it's supposed to be done, and it would go a long way to getting some credibility with the public and also help Realtors across the country get some credibility with the public. This is a responsibility and an opportunity to be the credible industry leader that the NAR claims to be.
There are many other sources of information available to people today, and increasingly, leery consumers are turning to those other sources and dismissing what they hear from the National Association of Realtors®, because often they think it's a con and they don't trust it.
Without the respect of the public the National Association of Realtors® and Realtors® across the country will be relegated to the sidelines, marginalized in our own industry.

And by the way, do we really think that a 5% to 10% price drop in California and Florida will probably do it? hmmm!