Single House Price Index

[guitarman001]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12008277

Hmmm.... could be THE index, easy to fudge showing constant HPI!

[TheCountOfNowhere]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12008277

Hmmm.... could be THE index, easy to fudge showing constant HPI!

We've reached the thick end of the wedge...the thin end was some time ago.

[rantnrave]

The fact that this subject has only come up now the indices are all showing real and sustained falls smacks of utter desperation.

The EAs themselves are now discussing the need for regional not national reporting: http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/News/Story/?storyid=3824&type=news_features

[long time lurking]

IIRC didn`t the con/libs ask mystic merv to include house price figures into the CPI figures shortly after being elected and then commission a report on the housing index`s I believe they are now going to include house price`s into CPI and that's why they need a single index 'and they Know now that they are falling and are going to use those falls to water down the CPI figures

If the above do come to fruition we will then know the government's stance on HPI

[MrFlibble]

There is nothing wrong with the current system. The only change I would make would be to change the release dates of the reports so they are on the same day of each month. We've seen it before with these various figures, one day the headlines are 'prices are rising', the next day the headlines are 'prices are falling'.

[rantnrave]

There is nothing wrong with the current system. The only change I would make would be to change the release dates of the reports so they are on the same day of each month. We've seen it before with these various figures, one day the headlines are 'prices are rising', the next day the headlines are 'prices are falling'.

That, is a very good point.

Fortunately, Daily Express readers don't have to worry about this problem. Seems their memories can only last 24 hours, maximum.

BTW, over on the EAtoday site I linked to earlier, they are bemoaning the fact that this country's media give overtly doom filled coverage of HPs .

Edited December 16, 2010 by rantnrave

[long time lurking]

That, is a very good point.

Fortunately, Daily Express readers don't have to worry about this problem. Seems their memories can only last 24 hours, maximum.

BTW, over on the EAtoday site I linked to earlier, they are bemoaning the fact that this country's media give overtly doom filled coverage of HPs .

It`s begin to look like there plan is to use falling house price`s to water down CPI and try to keep the over indebted heads above water with low interest rates , which is a very fine line to walk if you ask me

[Harry Monk]

Has anyone ever tried producing an amalgamation of the various indices we have at present?

Edited December 16, 2010 by Harry Monk

[long time lurking]

There is nothing wrong with the current system. The only change I would make would be to change the release dates of the reports so they are on the same day of each month. We've seen it before with these various figures, one day the headlines are 'prices are rising', the next day the headlines are 'prices are falling'.

That's why they need one index to enable them to include the figures in CPI

[jonb]

Has anyone ever tried producing an amalgamation of the various indices we have at present?

I guess the FT Acadametrics index kind of does that. Of course you don't want to combine the Rightmove index with any of the others. It is a useful index, but it doesn't measure house prices, it measures asking prices, and you want to be able to compare asking prices with selling prices.

[Ash4781]

If it is to go into the cpi this changes things. House price 'inflation' would be 'bad'. Though imagine the confusion at the Beeb!

[Fawkandles]

The reasoning for changing to cpi in the first place was that it was more comparable with eu nations, for comparisons etc. Cynics argued (rightly imo) that labour just wanted a lower figure than the rpi during the boom years - and this was successful from labours point of view.

If they put housing costs into the cpi then it wouldnt be the cpi anymore, and would have to be renamed something like cpix.

Personally i prefered the old days of having 2 measures reported - the rpi and the rpix.

[Unsafe As Houses]

All good points above which I agree with.

I only read the BBC summary not the original ONS report, but it appears that the ONS are proposing to release a single house price indice rather than having separate land registry and DCLG reports.

Therefore, Halliwide, Rightmove, Academishite, RICS etc would be unaffected.

If I'm wrong and they are in fact proposing just ONE indice produced by ONS, which was supposedly made 'independent from government' in 2008, rhis is a really bad idea.

The various indices we currently have all measure different facets of the housing market and taken together they are informative.

I'm not sure what form a single indice would take but if it is to be one which aims to incorporate asking prices, mortgage approvals, sales and a sample of EAs and surveyors' supposedly informed views in a composite indice then there's a lot of scope there for massaging the figures.

We would also lose the ability to compare prices historically and compare, say, asking prices with sold prices.

Edited December 16, 2010 by Unsafe As Houses

[darwin]

"I want to be sure that official statistics producers are providing the right statistics on house prices to support decision making by us all."

Riiight.

[NEO72]

Has anyone ever tried producing an amalgamation of the various indices we have at present?

If we ever got our act together, we could set up some sort of bogus 'consultancy', make up some form of amalgamated index (there are plenty of statos here) and disseminate it monthly (accompanied by a nice bearish message, naturally ).

Also, if anyone was willing to take up the position of spokesman/woman, they could do the rounds when it was released.

[SurgeonGeneral]

That's why they need one index to enable them to include the figures in CPI

This was predicted on here a good 3 years ago, though we thought Zanu Labour would be the ones to do it.

Nx

[long time lurking]

This was predicted on here a good 3 years ago, though we thought Zanu Labour would be the ones to do it.

Nx

I realise that [there`s a clue in my user name] ,but labour was never going to do it as they were the ones that removed them from CPI to alow massive HPI that was there plan and it worked well

And the fact boy George has asked for it to be included then stress tested the banks for 50% drop in house prices and then commissioned a report on the house price index`s that`s a recipe for a plan methinks so all the , there is now going to be constant hpi could not be further from the truth as falling house price`s included into CPI numbers would water them down nicely

Nx