For the first time in four years, Australia's residential property market has turned inward, shedding $34.1 billion in a single quarter and confronting a nation whose sense of financial security is, more than most, built upon the ground beneath its feet. With 57 percent of household wealth tied to real estate, what begins as a statistical contraction quickly becomes a lived experience — in spending decisions, in confidence, in the quiet arithmetic of ordinary lives. The forces driving this shift, rising borrowing costs and federal tax reforms targeting property investment, did not arrive witho