Nationwide recently reported that house prices rose by 0.6% and this was reported in all of the media, but when you investigate the figures they tell a different story ! Why is this so ?
The actual average house price quoted by Nationwide for August 2013 was £170,514, but in July they reported an average house price of £170,825. How do they report an increase in house prices then ? The answer of course lies in our old friend, ‘seasonal adjustment’.
Surely the use of ‘seasonal adjustment’ and other methods used by economists and other bodies to massage figures should be stopped and a report based on the true monthly figures published ?