Cause — meet effect

Once again, a writer for the MSM leads with a sentence that implies that there is no causative relationship between two obviously related facts.  This from the San Francisco Chronicle:

California home sales surged last month even while prices plunged a record amount, as buyers snapped up bargains among the state’s hundreds of thousands of foreclosed and distressed properties, according to an industry trade group.

Had I written that sentence, it would have read as follows:

California home sales surged last month because prices have plunged a record amount….