Money Minute Tuesday 29 October: UK and US house prices

This morning in the UK, we get the latest data on both consumer lending and mortgage approvals, for September.

For all the upheaval in the political sphere in recent years, consumer spending and mortgage lending have been pretty consistent, and that seems likely to have continued.Nationwide is also expected to release its figures for house price growth in October. Markets expect prices to have risen by 0.4% on this time last year.

In the US we also get the latest reading on house prices via the Case-Shiller index. This looks at prices in 20 major US cities. The American housing market slowed down during 2018. However, the market has rebounded this year.That's mainly because mortgage costs in the US - which were already extremely low have fallen further this year as the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates.

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That has helped to contribute to strong housing markets in many parts of the country.