smeagold Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 My link Yesterday, the Daily Express painted a highly positive picture of the housing market with a front page headline that screamed: "House prices up £67 a day". But its report, based on the Halifax house price index for June 2011, failed to point out that prices were down 3.5% year-on-year. Moreover, it quoted a housing specialist who claimed "all the house price data is quite clearly showing that the overall trend is one of positive growth since the end of last year." This is false. Not all house price data points to a positive trend since December 2010, and not all house price indices are as reliable as one another. Of the seven major house price statistics providers, only the Land Registry and LSL publish data from actual registered transactions, while the communities and local government department monitors completed transactions. The Halifax, Nationwide and Hometrack surveys only relate to mortgage approvals – a stage in the homebuying process well before contracts are actually exchanged – while Rightmove's data is simply based on searches on its website. So while Halifax's data indicates a miniscule rise of 0.1% since the end of last year, the LSL/Acadametrics index – one of the two most reliable indicators – shows a fall of 1%; and the latest Land Registry figures for May show a fall of 0.6% since December 2010 – which is expected to have grown in June given today's LSL figures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEO72 Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Whilst I like the overall tone of the article, it does get some facts wrong, namely the sources of the hometrack and RM data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Democorruptcy Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 My link Yesterday, the Daily Express painted a highly positive picture of the housing market with a front page headline that screamed: "House prices up £67 a day". But its report, based on the Halifax house price index for June 2011, failed to point out that prices were down 3.5% year-on-year. Moreover, it quoted a housing specialist who claimed "all the house price data is quite clearly showing that the overall trend is one of positive growth since the end of last year." This is false. The Daily Express did that? Richard Desmond bought the Express group of newspapers for £125m in 2000. It made a profit of more than £85m in 2006 and we value the business at £500m. Desmond owns the Express building in London, has a property and investment portfolio worth about £500m http://www.timesonline.co.uk/richlist/person/0,,46973,00.html These are mere coincidence http://thumbsnap.com/p9fry1Y3?src=tsd Incidentally you cannot complain to the Press Compliants Commission about the Daily Express because newspapers join the code voluntarily and the Express just refuse to join. It shows how useful our newspaper regulation is, like energy, FSA, gmabling commission, etc., completely and utterly useless. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/jan/11/richard-desmond-houseofcommons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.