Compairison of the four House Price Indices

DCLG (Department for Communities and Local Government) is the last of the House Price Index figures to be released and it’s HPI for January 2010 shows house prices where 6.2% higher than January 2009 and 2.2% higher than December 2009.

Based on mortgage completions, this lines up with Rightmove.co.uk, Nationwide and Halifax HPIs, although the monthly increase was higher than the rest and yearly figure only just topped by Nationwide.

The forcasted yearly growth had been 3.6% and therefore 6.2% does represent a stronger increase than analysts had predicted.

Not surprisingly London still leads the regional average with the lowest being the North East.

For more information visit: www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/hpi012010

The Rightmove.co.uk House Price Index (HPI) released this week shows the increase in average house price to be 3.2%, up to £229,398. This is a jump from the very low growth of 0.4% in Januarys figures. It also represents a 6.1% increase over the past year.

According to rightmove.co.uk this has been a result of the lack of new sellers, allowing asking prices to be bumped up. They state that:

• Monthly rise reminiscent of boom-times; there has been no higher rise since April 2007 when we saw a 3.7% increase
• January sees record search activity on rightmove.co.uk, up 29% on same period last year
• The economic fundamentals cannot support further price increases of this magnitude

For more information visit: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/house-price-index/february-2010

Halifax House Price Index (HPI) for January 2010 has shown that house prices are up 0.6% on those from December 2009. Although this is the seventh consecutive monthly rise, it is the lowest in this period and lower than the 1.1% average.

In contrast the index is 3.6% up on last year which is the largest annual rate – measured by the average for the latest three months against the same period a year earlier – since February 2008.

“The marked reduction in interest rates over the past 15 months has, from a low base, boosted housing demand from those with a sufficient deposit to enter the market. Increased demand has combined with a low supply of properties available for sale to push up prices.

There are some signs that more people are putting their homes on the market. A further increase in the supply of property is possible over the coming months, which would help to.” Martin Ellis, housing economist

For more information visit www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/media .

Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said: “Unless there is a fall in property values in February, annual house price inflation is likely to move into double-digit territory next month for the first time since May 2007.”

This would mean that we could see rise of above 10% a year, but likely to just represent the exit from the recession rather than a return to the high yearly increases we saw just before the recession.

The three-month on three-month rate, regarded as a less volatile measure of house prices, saw prices rise by 2.1% in January, down slightly from 2.3% in December.

For more information read the full Nationwide press release