From my morning in-box: House prices fell in most U.S. cities during November, including the Twin Cities, according to the latest Case-Shiller home price index, which tracks house prices in 20 of the nation's largest metro areas.

For a composite of all 20 areas, prices were down .7 percent from October, but also 3.7 percent from November 2010 - a larger decline than the 3.4 percent annual decrease in October. While the index was down 5 percent in the Twin Cities metro - a slightly higher decline the national average - there was some good news. The Twin Cities decline was smaller than it had been in previous months. During the past year annual price declines in the Twin Cities were the largest in the country, an indication, some say, that this market is working its way through foreclosure inventory faster than other cities. In fact, in the Twin Cities foreclosures consistently represent a much higher percentage of all sales than the national average even though the region's foreclosure rate is nearly half the national average.

And, in the Twin Cities, the price declines from October to November were about half as large as from September to October, suggesting that prices might not be falling as quickly.

Across the country the November index clocked in at 138.49, meaning that prices are still almost 40 percent higher than they were when the index baseline was established in 2000. In the Twin Cities the index fell to 113.25. Of the 20 cities tracked by the report, the index rose on an annual basis only in Detroit and Washington. Atlanta posted the worst performance with prices falling 12 percent compared with November 2010.

David Blitzer, the chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor's, said that the trend remains down and there are very few signs of a turning point. Of particular concern is the overhang of foreclosures, which continue to erode prices.

Also from my in-box: a related report called the Fiserv Case-Shiller Indexes (this one is forward looking) said that in the Twin Cities metro area home prices are expected to fall another 1.2 percent by this summer of 2012 with prices set to rebound in 2013. In fact, U.S. prices are expected to rise more than 3 percent through September 2013.