Never let facts get in the way of a good story: EADT says East Anglian ‘house prices rising’
The splash in the East Anglian Daily Times yesterday looked like good news for anyone int he paper’s circulation area trying to sell a house, with its headline: House prices rising.
Pity for them it was not true that “house prices are on the rise in East Anglia”. They had risen by 0.8% in a year, the paper said.
This figure, in Land Registry statistics, was for the eastern region, which includes Hertofrdshire and Bedfordshire.
The figure for Suffolk was that there had been no change in the past year and in Norfolk they had risen by an insignificant 0.2%.
Taking inflation into account, prices have fallen in real terms in both counties.
The figures and statistical methods are complicated but it seems that the most significant element of what rises there have been is for very expensive houses.
In July the number of houses sold in England and Wales for over £1m doubled to 562.
I can see how the EADT made its mistake as the press release from the Land Registry only gave regional figures. But I would have expected any reporter working in Suffolk to know the difference between the east and East Anglia.
A simple phone call to the Land Registry would inevitably led them to the full report with its house price index figures for most counties.
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