A closely watched gauge of U.S. home prices shows they are falling sharply at record rates as a deepening slump in the housing market threatens to damp consumer spending, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Home prices in 10 major metropolitan areas in November were down 8.4% from a year earlier, according to the S & P;/Case-Shiller home-price indexes, released Tuesday by credit-rating firm Standard & Poor’s. In October, they fell 6.7%, exceeding the previous record year-to-year decline of 6.3% in April 1991, when the economy was emerging from a recession.

November was the 11th consecutive month of negative annual returns and the 24th straight month of decelerating returns.

Robert Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC and co-developer of the index, said, “We reached another grim milestone” in November, as 13 of the 20 metro areas in the 20-city index, all of which have data dating to 1991, hit record price drops as well.

The indexes include some places most affected by the fast-growing home-price bubble during the past few years. Miami home prices were down 15% in November from a year earlier, while prices fell 13% in San Diego, Las Vegas and Detroit.

The expanded 20-city index, which dates back to 2001, fell 7.7% from a year earlier and 2.1% from October. Portland and Seattle are the only two metro areas with year-over-year increases – 1.3% and 1.8%, respectively.

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