Over the last few years more and more people have paid attention to the various house price indices results. Generally, these come from mortgage lenders such as Halifax and Nationwide. There are also many others.
As the months have gone on, a number of results have been questioned and February is no exception. According to Nationwide, property prices increased by 3.1% in February. Halifax said it was more like 1.6%, which is quite a difference. Other results from Rightmove and Hometrack showed 2% and 0.9% respectively. So which is to be believed?
Our View
House price indices do vary because the criteria going in affects the results coming out. Whilst there are differences between the results, everyone agrees that there was a large jump in house prices in January. Everyone also agrees that there was a fallback in February but that house prices still rose. Surely price rises are good for everyone owning property. But, spare a thought for first time buyers that are increasingly seeing property move out of their grasp.