High mortgage rates and cost of living pressures continue to weigh heavy on consumer confidence in the housing market.

Housebuilders are hoping for better weather next year and the signals so far is that the worst of the market slump is over but they have not committed to much in the way of positivity.

Today, Taylor Wimpey hailed a resilient performance in a trading update. However, as with Persimmon earlier this week, "no real guidance" was given on 2024 although there is possibly something to be learned from that omission.

Garry White, chief investment commentator at Charles Stanley, said the City responded well amid "hopes there would be signs of life in the housing market".

READ MORE: 'Highly uncertain' times with fewer new homes 

It was echoed by Oli Creasey, property equity analyst at Quilter Cheviot, who said: "Taylor Wimpey released a Q3 trading statement this morning, which paints a picture of resilience in a challenging market.

"The company has reaffirmed guidance for full year volumes to be between 10,000-10,500 homes, but has been able to increase operating profit expectations, guiding analysts towards the top end of the previously announced range of £440 million-£470 million."

READ MORE: Housebuilder cuts 300 jobs and builds fewer homes

Taylor Wimpey said: "Looking ahead, there remains significant market uncertainty and our focus is on ensuring we remain agile and well positioned to optimise performance in all market conditions, delivering quality homes to our customers and long term growth and value to our stakeholders.

"Taylor Wimpey is financially strong with a high-quality, well-located landbank and a highly experienced management team with a focus on protecting value while driving further operational efficiency. We remain confident in the medium to long term sector fundamentals with a continued meaningful supply and demand imbalance in UK housing."

READ MORE: 'Most difficult year known in building trade'

The extent to which the downturn affected housebuilders was shown with Persimmon saying earlier this week that new home completions plummeted 37% year-on-year at 1,439 in the last quarter.

Taylor Wimpey said that over the last year it has "acted decisively and proactively to mitigate risk through the levers available to us".

It said that in light of reduced market demand, it has "closely controlled costs and our investment in work in progress, with our teams focused on delivering efficiencies across the business".

With the landbank down on last year, however, there may still be work to be done.