A closely-watched gauge of housing market said Tuesday that home prices fell yet again in November, as all metropolitan areas across the nation saw declines during the month.

The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index for 10 cities fell by 2.2% in November, while the broader 20-city index fell by 2.3% during the month.

Year over year, the Case-Shiller 20-city index dropped by a record 18.2% to its lowest level since February 2004.

The yet another record decline in the Case-Shiller Index, which is considered one of the best trackers for U.S. home prices, is not good news for the housing market because it’s regularly used for mortgage refinancing and appraising.

According to the Case-Shiller Index, the biggest declines in prices came in the struggling housing markets of Phoenix and Las Vegas, where home prices declined last month in excess of 3%. Both of those housing markets now have home valued down more than 30% from a year ago.

New York’s real estate market, which is usually considered resistant to any downturns, fell by 1.6% last month after falling by 1% the month before.

While housing prices have consistently moved lower for all of 2008, the declines have steepened during the last few month of the year after the financial crisis of September and October re-froze the credit markets and home buying, economists said

It’s tough to say when the housing market will bottom, if housing prices continue to decline like this, economists said. Right now, economists are looking for a de-acceleration in home price declines.

“Given the current intensity of the credit crisis, and the sharp contraction that the economy is experiencing … this will keep downward pressure on the home prices of the foreseeable future,” said FOX Business’ Chief Economist Mark Lieberman.

Consumer Confidence

Levels for consumer confidence fell to another low, the Conference Board said Tuesday, as a dismal economy and financial crisis gave consumers little reason to go shopping.

According to the Conference Board, consumer confidence fell to a reading of 37.7 in January, down from a revised 38.6 in December.

The reading was lower than what economists were expecting, who were looking for confidence to rise to a reading of 39.

Consumer confidence is closely tracked by Wall Street and economists because consumer spending makes up nearly 70% of the nation’s gross domestic product.

“This is disappointing,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist with High Frequency Economics. “We had hoped that the positive impact on peoples' cash flow from falling gas prices would outweigh the effect of the drop in stock prices.”