Nationwide had 0.9% house price increase in March

By Leah Simpson
Posted: 2009/04/03

NATIONWIDE'S House Price Index has been less volatile than others and so it is particularly good news that Nationwide has reported a 0.9 per cent increase in house prices in March.

However, the real figures are even better because the figures both Nationwide and Halifax report are doctored, or "seasonally adjusted" to use the technical term.

The real increase in house prices last month, hidden away in the Nationwide data, was 2.2 per cent. Backing this up is last week's mortgage approvals figure for February from the Bank of England showing an increase of 19 per cent. But this too was seasonally adjusted.

The real figures showed a 62 per cent increase on January.

Ray Boulger is senior technical manager at independent mortgage brokers John Charcol.