The NationWide reported an overall price rise of 1.2% in May 2009, BUT the Land Registry (which records all UK house sales) recorded a fall of 0.2% in average property prices. So who is right?
On the face of it I would go with Land Registry, simply because they are based on a higher volume of transactions, that said, depending on how intelligently Nationwide puts its stats together, then they could be more accurate. For example a bank/building society could make more like-for-like comparisons to see changes in similar property types, whereas Land Registry relies on transactions in a given postcode area. But if you were a sceptic you might say that the bank want to talk up prices to get us buying and taking out their mortgages?
The most surprising thing for me from the Land Registry May 2009 house price data is how it varies by area. For example Wales recorded an average increase of 1.2%, whereas London recorded a fall of 1.5% and Yorkshire & Humberside a 2.3% fall; worse still the North East recorded a 4.3% fall in May, lets hope that was just a statistical error!
