Single-family home prices in the United States slipped in November from a month earlier, but were up 5.5 percent compared with a year ago, according to the S.&P./Case-Shiller housing price index released Tuesday.

The annual increase builds on a string of gains that point to a housing market that is on the mend.

“Housing is clearly recovering,” David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S.&P. Dow Jones Indexes, said in a statement.

Prices on a nonadjusted basis slipped 0.1 percent from October. Prices fell in about half of the 20 metropolitan areas covered by the survey, with the winter months typically a weak period for housing.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the index gained 0.6 percent from October to November, in line with economists’ forecasts.

A separate report releaed on Tuesday said that consumer confidence in the United States had dropped in January to its lowest level in more than a year.

The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes fell to 58.6 from an upwardly revised 66.7 in December, falling short of economists’ expectations for 64. It was the lowest level since November 2011.

At the start of the year, Washington came to an agreement that averted spending cuts and tax increases that had been set to come into effect. But the deal did raise taxes for many Americans and a number of budget decisions still remain.

“The increase in the payroll tax has undoubtedly dampened consumers’ spirits, and it may take a while for confidence to rebound and consumers to recover from their initial paycheck shock,” Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said in a statement.