With a slowing economy, market analysts were a bit caught off guard when UK mortgage lender Nationwide announced that housing prices had remained relatively stable in the month of November.  In the month, UK housing prices rose by 0.4% – a healthy follow up to October’s 0.4% gain.  Estimates were for the survey to show slowing prices, with a decline of as much as 0.1%.  The positive monthly figure helped to boost the annualized gauge higher by 1.6% – compared to forecasts of a 1.3% advance.

The housing figures were released shortly before it was revealed that mortgage approvals in Europe’s second largest economy rose.  Buoyed by a record low interest rate, mortgage approvals jumped to 52,743 approvals, rising slightly above estimates of a 52,000 approval forecast, according to the Bank of England report.

This is all good news for a sector that has widely been plagued by depreciation amidst an economy that is expected to expand by a paltry 0.5% annually this year.  However, concern still remained for the sector going forward.  Although recognizing the climb in housing prices, Nationwide Chief Economist Robert Gardner noted that “house prices are likely to remain soft” on slower growth anticipated for next year.

On the heels of the comments, the GBPUSD is trading a bit lower than the session high of 1.5654 – now trading at 1.5596 ahead of the New York open.