With more than a million homes in foreclosure in the U.S., the housing market is still struggling to rebound. According to a home-price index released earlier this week, housing prices fell for the third month in a row in most major cities.

From October to November 2011, prices fell in 19 of the 20 cities tracked. The chairman of the index committee says that there are few signs that the numbers will go up in the near future. This, despite some hopeful signs of a rebound at the end of last year.

Still, there are some indications that things could turn around at some point. Construction of new homes picked up in the last quarter of 2011 and more people appear interested in buying homes. However, a number of things need to occur before that can happen and before prices will increase.

For one thing, fewer empty homes need to be sitting idle on the market. One economist says there are so many that the situation may not change for several years, perhaps until 2015. On a related note, the supply of homes that are for sale needs to decrease.

In addition, reports say, banks will need to become more lax with lending requirements, and more young people and immigrants will need to switch from renting homes to buying them. It would also certainly help if unemployment fell and people felt more comfortable with their income.

It will likely be a while until we see these changes, but the more the economic outlook brightens, the more likely the housing market will turn around as well.

Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Home prices dropped in November in most US cities," Derek Kravitz, Jan. 31, 2012