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FT House Price Index – December 2004
The December 2004 FT House Price Index continues to show a steady fall in annual house price inflation. For December, the annual rate of house price inflation was 12.7%. This is the lowest annual rate since November 2003. The seasonally adjusted monthly rate of house price inflation for December was 0.9%. The rate of house price increases in the final quarter was the lowest since the beginning of 2003. The Index is calculated by Acadametrics to foreshadow the Land Registry, the only complete measure of domestic property prices, whose fourth quarter results will be published in February.
We estimate the FT House Price Index, on a seasonally adjusted basis,
as follows:
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House
Price |
Index |
Monthly
Change % |
Annual
Change % |
|
December 2004 |
£188,241 |
180.5 |
0.9 |
12.7 |
|
November 2004 |
£186,470 |
178.8 |
0.5 |
12.8 |
|
October 2004 |
£185,472 |
177.9 |
0.8 |
14.2 |
|
September 2004 |
£183,972 |
176.4 |
0.8 |
15.7 |
|
August 2004 |
£182,452 |
175.0 |
1.4 |
16.9 |
|
July 2004 |
£179,908 |
172.5 |
1.4 |
17.7 |
Most indices tend to oscillate from one month to another, especially when the market is turning. During 2004, however, the FT House Price Index has depicted the underlying trend. This trend has shown a steady decline in the annual rate of house price inflation from June, despite the fact that the monthly rate of inflation strengthened from May and reached a peak in August. The Land Registry and the FT House Price Index have recorded no falls in house prices in any month during 2004. The monthly falls in other indices may be the consequence of month to month volatility, the lack of seasonal adjustment in some cases, or limited coverage.
FT House Price Index results to Sept 04 are
based on Land Registry published data, smoothed, seasonally adjusted but not
mix adjusted, revised with updated LR results as available. From Oct 04 to
current month, FT House Price Index monthly forecasts of updated LR house price
results are shown.
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Also see www.ft.com/houseprices |