Two of the latest, the Halifax and the Nationwide seasonally adjusted February house price indices differ by 1.2% while the real, non seasonally adjusted, differ by 0.1%.
‘Most of the house price indices published measure different things and furthermore figures for any given month in reality cover activity for different periods. For example The Land Registry figures have the largest sample and hence are the most comprehensive, but they are also the most historic because they are based on when details of completed sales are reported to the Land Registry,’ explained Ray Boulger of leading independent mortgage adviser John Charcol.
‘Near the other end of the timescale the Nationwide and Halifax figures are based on mortgage offers issued by those lenders and so are more timely, but also include figures for some transactions which never actually complete.’
Even although for these reasons there are good reasons why different indices might record different figures for the same month, the Nationwide and Halifax indices are the exception because they are broadly designed to measure the same thing on nearly the same timeframe, he points out and this begs the question as to why they often vary so much, particularly on a monthly basis.
‘One issue hampering all house price index compilers is the current historically low level of transactions. Unless a provider has significantly increased their market share this has reduced sample sizes, which makes it more challenging to make the necessary mix adjustments to reflect any changes in the type of property purchased from month to month. Nationwide has roughly maintained its market share in the current much smaller market, but Halifax's market share has fallen and this means there is a double whammy effect for Halifax in terms of having to base its figures on a smaller share of a smaller market,’ said Boulger.
The fact that the figures are seasonally adjusted confuses matters. ‘When I first started looking at reasons for the differences in these two indices I expected to find that it was primarily due to differences in the real, i.e. non seasonally adjusted, figures but what actually quickly became apparent was that differences in the seasonal adjustments used by each lender were often a major factor in the figures they announced showing such large discrepancies,’ he explained.
‘The real, i.e. non seasonally adjusted, figures for average house prices are helpfully provided by Nationwide in its press release and so it is a simple matter for anyone with a calculator to work out the real change on a monthly, or other period, basis. Halifax, very unhelpfully, makes absolutely no reference to the real figures in its press release and so one has to know where to look on its web site to dig them out,’ he added.
February figures how the seasonal adjustments are seriously distorting the way house price changes are reported. ‘Halifax reported a seasonally adjusted fall of 0.9% for February but the real change was + 0.1%, whereas Nationwide reported a seasonally adjusted increase of 0.3% but its real figure was unchanged on the month,’ explained Boulger.
‘Thus the real house price change in February recorded by both lenders only differed by 0.1%, well within the impact of sampling differences, whereas the seasonal adjustments applied by the lenders differed by a whopping 1.3%, with Nationwide increasing the real figure by 0.3% and Halifax reducing it by 1.0%. This makes nonsense of the seasonal adjustments and hence the reported figures,’ he added.
He is behind calls for the Government to take the lead in the interest of increasing clarity in these economically important monthly statistics and says that the current review of the various house price indices currently being carried out by the Government provides an ideal opportunity to assess how presentation of the data can be improved.
