Housing boom lifts consumer confidence More people are saying now is a good time to buy a house. Optimism about the booming housing market has lifted consumer confidence to its second-highest level in almost three years, but a weak jobs market remains a concern, a private survey has found. The index hit 110.3 points in November, just shy of its 110.6 level in September. Consumer sentiment was slightly lower at 108.3 in October. The sub-index which measured whether households believed it was a good or bad time to buy a major household item surged 4.4 per cent to 142.8 points. Boost from residential property market The housing market played a key role boosting optimism in states where property prices have soared amid record-low interest rates, Westpac's chief economist Bill Evans said. Importantly, house prices were reported to have risen by 1.9 per cent in the September quarter, with prices in Sydney rising by 3.6 per cent to be up by 11.4 per cent for the year, Mr Evans said. Sentiment also strengthened further in NSW and Western Australia, where house prices have climbed higher in recent months, jumping 7.7 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively. Contrasts with fall in business sentiment The resilience in consumer sentiment contrasted with the return of business confidence to pre-election levels, according to the National Australia Bank's monthly survey released yesterday. But Citi economists said the consumer boost should support firms. "Businesses should take some heart from the resilience in consumer sentiment and the increase in current conditions as perceived by households," Citi economists Joshua Williamson and Paul Brennan said. This is at a 6½-year high and should start to lift business conditions. Even so, the elevated levels of consumer sentiment might not feed through to the till, with the survey finding that consumer spending plans for this Christmas have not changed much from the past four years. Those four years were also tepid Christmas seasons for retailers, Westpac senior economist Matthew Hassan said. Overall, the 2013 reading points to another flat Christmas. However, there are some notable differences across states and different parts of the population. Consumers in NSW are planning a much less restrained Christmas spend compared to the last four years," Mr Hassan said. Among the age groups, 18 to 34-year-olds and 50 to 54-year-olds said they were planning to be more cautious with their spending. Consumers aged between 35 and 44 said they were more willing to loosen their purse strings this year. Unemployment fears weigh on confidence At the same time, the weakness in the labour market, as seen in the October jobs data, hit the unemployment expectations sub-index of the survey. The index rose 0.9 per cent this month to 144.7 points, and followed a 0.6 per cent increase in October. Although the sub-index had fallen 10 per cent in the previous three months, the trend was still 14 per cent higher than the long-run average, Westpac said. The sub-index on family finances also sank by 7.9 per cent to 99.9 points. "In effect despite the Reserve Bank reducing interest rates by 225 basis points since November 2011 and consumer sentiment increasing, respondents are more concerned about the outlook for unemployment, and by implication their job security, than they were two years ago," Mr Evans said. Weak third-quarter wages The confidence survey came as the third-quarter wage price index for private and public sector workers edged up a seasonally adjusted 0.5 per cent, below economists' expectations of a 0.7 per cent rise. The year-on-year growth was 2.7 per cent for the private sector and 2.6 per cent for the public sector, and was also softer than consensus forecasts. The rise in private sector wages was the second-smallest increase in the history of the Bureau of Statistics survey, and was only slightly above the 0.4 per cent growth seen during the financial crisis, Barclays' chief economist Kieran Davies said.