Rightmove house price index -1.7% august

phil_b_2

It seems like Dirk lives in the ghetto where nobody wants to buy a house. Get out while you can dude.

neverdespairgirl

Sibley wrote: »

If somebody had a house for sale at £200k last month they are not going to instruct the estate agent to reduce the price by 1% though.

I have a vague recollection that the rightmove index tracks new listing prices, not drops in old ones. But I could be wrong.

Generali

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I have a vague recollection that the rightmove index tracks new listing prices, not drops in old ones. But I could be wrong.

According to these guys:

http://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_indices/Rightmove.htm

you are right.

The Rightmove index is based upon sellers' asking prices as posted on the Rightmove website. Actual figures are not available nor are they verified by a third party. However, Rightmove claims that about 90 percent of all properties on sale are advertised on its website although this would seem to be an overestimate. It would appear that only properties which are new on the market in any given month are used in the calculation thereby ignoring price changes of properties already on the market.

Rightmove themselves give very little information out about their methodology on their website, instead refering enquirers to their press office. That sort of thing immediately makes me suspicious.

Blacklight

It would appear that only properties which are new on the market in any given month are used in the calculation thereby ignoring price changes of properties already on the market.

It would make more sense to me to measure the opposite of this. Reductions in asking prices rather than the average price of new instructions, otherwise the data is skewed by the number of properties coming on to the market in certain price brackets.

[edit] No, this wouldn't work, the figure would always be negative unless people were increasing the asking price month on month. I guess the only way to measure it is the average price of new instructions, pretty meaningless though.

zappahey

Blacklight wrote: »

I guess the only way to measure it is the average price of new instructions, pretty meaningless though.

Indeed, I rather suspect that the cost of generating Rightmove stats is borne by the marketing budget as that is their only real purpose.

Generali

zappahey wrote: »

Indeed, I rather suspect that the cost of generating Rightmove stats is borne by the marketing budget as that is their only real purpose.

It works very well on that basis: the numbers get reported by pretty much every newspaper that fancies itself as a 'serious' newspaper (although they are often ignored by the FT, the only really 'serious' daily newspaper in the UK IMO) and they've generated 47 posts on here so far this month on this thread alone.

RDB

Doctor_Gloom wrote: »

These falls are massive. The second part of the housing price crash is gathering pace.

If these massive falls continue for a couple of years then we can say the house price crash has gathered pace.

Dirk_Rambo

RDB wrote: »

If these massive falls continue for a couple of years then we can say the house price crash has gathered pace.

thats a very good point rdb. 1.7 percent is a big drop so it looks like things are acellerating

carolt

Must have missed this one too.

Another good thread.

poppycod

Wookster wrote: »

LOL

Anything other than the real reasons (credit drought, properties priced well above historical norms).

Next thing it'll be leaves on the line...

Why are the BBC so interested in spinning that house prices will go up?

Whats in it for them?