Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist at MFR, said that some parts of the country might be only halfway through the retrenchment.
"You need to have a correction, you need to have an adjustment," Shapiro said. "The faster it happens, the better."
Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, said that 45 percent of all home sales were so-called "distressed sales," meaning that the sellers faced foreclosure or they were forced to sell their home for less than the value of the mortgage.
That was slightly higher than the previous month.
"It's probably the largest price drop since the Great Depression," Yun said.
"There needs to be some measure to counter this pessimism. Without housing market stabilization, it'll be very difficult for the economy to recover."
That trend is especially pronounced in regions of the country hit hardest by housing's boom and bust.
In parts of Southern California, more than half of all houses sold in November had gone through foreclosure at some point in the past 12 months, according to MDA DataQuick, a real estate research firm.
"Outside of distressed properties, the market is nonexistent almost," said Frederick Cannon, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.
"You don't want to sell into it. Most people are saying, 'I'll just stay in this house.' "
The Commerce Department said that the median price of a new home sold in November was $220,400, down 11.5 percent from the period a year ago.
It was the biggest year-to-year price decline since a 12.7 percent drop in March.
