Friday, Feb 15, 2008
Statistics and how they are calculated
The Times: An essential guide to what the housing market surveys really mean
A VERY useful article to show that no matter who measures the stats, there is not a uniform way of doing it. Notably, the Nationwide do NOT include BTL in their numbers.
Posted by growler @ 02:24 PM (380 views) Add Comment
4 Comments
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1. paul said...
All of the figures skirt around negative factors in the figures.
Nationwide doesn't include BTL and seasonally and mix-adjusts ("massages").
Halifax seasonally and mix-adjusts.
Hometrack is (sellers') asking prices only
The Land Registry figures can be gamed easily (as the recent documentary showed)
The only one looking viable is Chesterton's, but their methodology is unclear.
2. su said...
This is a great find, Growler - very helpful, and Paul's done a grand job summarising the article.
3. Carl said...
N/wide do not include BTL as the index is based on their own lending figures... they do not do BTL's !!
4. Icarus said...
There are all kinds of sweeteners the seller may offer the buyer. In the US a few months ago it was calculated that such price massaging "added" about 5% to house values. A wider point - there are so many organisations massaging figures and none of them is trying to paint a bleak picture, so things are generally worse than they seem.