The stock market is hot and consumption is booming, but the housing market is playing the opposite tune! After the central bank relaxes mortgage restrictions...buyers still don't appreciate it?

Cathay Financial released the results of the National Economic Confidence Survey in October. Both the business optimism and salary expectations index continued to rise, and consumption willingness also rose simultaneously. In the real estate sector, the public willingness to buy a house index dropped from -38.6 in September to -39.1. However, the willingness to sell house index rose from -34.0 to -31.9. After the central bank relaxed the credit control on second households in September, the willingness to buy a house unexpectedly declined.

Regarding the fact that the willingness to buy a house has not increased with the central bank's relaxation of controls, Wang Junjie, general manager of Haiyue Advertising, believes that the central bank's relaxation of loan restrictions for second-home purchases is mainly a rebound in confidence for the market. "It is a stabilizing force" and allows people who want to change houses not to worry about insufficient loans. In the long term, this is more important and helpful than the recovery of the housing market.

According to the latest economic policy signal released by the National Development Council in August, the signal of economic growth in August continues to show a red light, leading indicators and concurrent indicators continue to rise, and economic growth is still showing steady growth. This month’s survey shows that the public’s optimism index for the economy continues to rise, with the optimism index for the current economic situation rising to 19.7 and the optimism index for the outlook rising to 20.0. In addition, the salary expectation index hit a record high of 25.3, leading to a simultaneous improvement in consumption willingness. Among them, the large-ticket consumption willingness index rose to 19.1, and the durable goods consumption willingness index rose to -3.3.

This month, the average public expectation for the economic growth rate in 2026 is 10.94%, and 55% of the public believe that the economic growth rate in 2026 will be higher than 11%. The average public expectation for inflation this year is 2.52%, and as many as 52% of the public believe that the inflation rate this year will be higher than 2.5%.

In addition, after the September FOMC meeting raised interest rates by one yard, policy uncertainty was temporarily lifted, and the subsequent new application of Meta AI agent Muse drove AI stocks to rise, and Taiwan stocks rose accordingly. This month's survey results show that the public's optimism index for Taiwan stocks rose to 55.0, another record high, and the risk appetite index also rose to 35.0.

This month's current affairs topic is, "Do you think household finances will benefit from economic growth?" The survey results show that 34% of the people think that there is some positive impact, and 32% of the people have not felt the obvious impact. "What do you think is the biggest source of help for family finances during this current boom?" 42% of people think it comes from profits from stocks, funds and other investments, 10% think it comes from increases in wages, bonuses or job opportunities, and 37% said their income has not increased significantly, so they have not felt the positive impact.