Government Figures on UK House Prices for July Interesting in Places

Well, the government (Department for Communities and local Government) released its figures on UK house prices for July yesterday, and unsurprisingly they show price rises across the board, except for on the annual measure, for which the rate of decline continued to slow.

What was surprising however, was the fact that the DCLG index now has the rate of annual decline at slower than the Halifax, though it is still faster than that of Nationwide.

According to the DCLG index for July, UK house prices rose 1.4% on the month (Halifax 1.1%, Nationwide 1.3%).

The DCLG's tri-monthly measure turned positive for the first time, with a growth of 2.1% in the three months ending July, compared to a fall of 2.8% in the previous quarter. Both Halifax and Nationwide recorded tri-monthly growth in the three months ending July (see links above). The tri-monthly measure is widely recognised as the more accurate indicator of short term trends because it is less volatile.

Now, annual measurements: in July 2009 UK house prices were 8.3% lower than in July 2008 according to the DCLG, 12.1% lower according to the Halifax and 6.2% lower according to the Nationwide.

Of course the Nationwide and Halifax have now both released their figures for August, and both showed prices continuing to rise on the monthly and tri-monthly basis, and the annual rate of decline continuing to slow. Interestingly the Halifax figures still show the annual decline at faster than the DCLG, at 10.1%, though they show a £112 increase for 2009 so far. According to Nationwide house prices were down just over 2% on an annual basis in August.