'It's still too early to call a bottom' on both confidence and housing, said Gary Thayer, senior economist at Wachovia Securities. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index released Tuesday showed home prices dropped a record 15.4 percent during the second quarter. However, the rate of single-family home price declines slowed from May to June. Sales of new homes rose in July, but still fell short of economists' expectations, and home prices continued to sink. Still, the July increase followed a sharp downward revision to June's sales. 'Consumer confidence readings suggest that the economy remains stuck in neutral, but may be showing signs of improvement by early next year,' Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in a statement. However, 'overall readings are still quite low by historical standards, and it is still too early to tell if the worst is behind us.' Falling gas prices in recent weeks helped boost consumers' mood, Franco said. Gas prices have dropped 15 cents a gallon in the past two weeks, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations nationwide, released Sunday. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline at self-serve stations was $3.70 on Friday.