House price reports: which help you the most?
Local house price reports are a guide to the best value
National and regional house price reports use sophisticated methodology to avoid short term influences or regional bias.
These house price reports don't help with researching local values.
Before looking for a home to buy in a specific area, it helps to compare prices locally, by property type.
Before searching for a home
Compare areas within a town. Price differences can be considerable.
Look at Land Registry data by postcode at sector level with average prices for each type, detached, semi-detached, terrace, flats.
The data can be 3 to 6 months behind the current market. There may be small percentage changes in value. These won't affect large differences between areas significantly.
When you've found a home, before offering consider:
How tough can you be when you negotiate?
Look at how difficult selling is from a seller's viewpoint.
Compare asking prices (Rightmove) with agreed sale prices and time taken to sell (Hometrack) and completed sales (Land Registry).
The major lenders' sites usually comment on how the market is performing.
Are prices still falling, static or moving up? How long are typical sales taking? Is it less or more time than previous months?
Put together this will indicate how firm the market is, how tough to be when negotiating.
How much to pay. Look at direct comparables
The recent availability of Land Registry house prices by individual address is invaluable. You can find exactly how much was paid for comparable neighbouring homes.
See panel to the right for the best sites for buying decisions.
Current house prices reports
See page on house price news for a summary.
