Submitted on Monday 06th April 2009
Nationwide say up Halifax say down
UK house prices showed a surprise increase in March, as the Nationwide house price index on Thursday registered its first rise since October 2007.
This may indicate a corner has been turned or it may demonstrate the arrival of spring combined with pent up demand expressing itself in a low interest rate environment
Halifax on the other hand are showing a 1.9% drop over a similar period
Is the moral take a mortgage out with Nationwide as their properties seem to be more recession proof?
The truth is that like any comparative measures they are both right and they are both wrong. There are several property price measures in the marketplace.
Rightmove surveys of asking prices and as such shows where the market is heading.
Hometrack index is a survey of Estate Agents estimates of current prices in their locality – and they do not usually publish the full results of their survey.
FT HPI is made by the producers of the FT Index and aggregates a variety of sources including Land Registry (A bit like a Fund of Funds)
Halifax and Nationwide are similar in approach using their own valuers and so any differences will only reflect the slightly different demographic of their customers
