From This is Money:
Hometrack said house prices remained unchanged last month, Nationwide reported a 1.2% rise and Halifax said the rise was 2.6%. Why is there such a divergence in data?…
1) No-one uses the same data
The problem with the majority of house price indices is that they do not provide data on the actual price paid for houses in a timely manner.
For example, the most widely recognised indices, Halifax and Nationwide, use mortgage offer prices, which may differ from the price paid.
Rightmove and Hometrack are based on asking prices. While reports from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) are based on surveyor expectations and the Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) works on mortgage completion prices.
The latter is still slightly off the mark, as it does not include the cash actually paid for a house: for instance, someone may consolidate some other debts into their mortgage.
Only the Land Registry (LR) and the Financial Times House Price Index (FTHP…
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