After reported falls in house prices in February from both the Nationwide and Halifax, the latest news from Acadametrics, which used to produce the FT's house price index, gave a rather different picture. It showed that prices rose by a hefty 1.9% in February, for an increase of 9.7% on a year earlier. The average house price in England and Wales was £222,008. I like the Acadametrics house price index for its completeness and rigour, but why the big difference? Dr Peter Williams, Acadametrics chairman, explains:

"Given that the two lender mortgage approval based indices for February showed falls of -1.0% and -1.5%, we have a clear tension as to what is really happening in the market. The AcadHPI for the latest month is forecast on a mix of data but, as prior months show, when more data becomes available is impressively stable and reliable. In seeking answers to the current divergence we would stress AcadHPI is a completion based measure, it covers England and Wales rather than the UK and it includes all properties sold including cash purchases and homes sold for over £1 million. All of these will be factors in explaining the difference."

The index is here.