U.K. Home Prices: Halifax and Nationwide April 2011

The latest release of the two most prominent home price indices for the United Kingdom are continuing to signal sluggishness mixed with a slight lift coming in recent months.

The “Nationwide” series, indicated that U.K. home prices increased 0.52% from March but falling 1.30% below the level seen in April 2010 while the “Halifax” series remained flat from March and fell a notable 4.97% below the level seen a year earlier.

Both indices are similar to our own S&P/Case-Shiller data series in that they both implement a methodology that seeks to standardize the quality homes included as source data and track the price changes occurring between sales instead of simply tracking the distorted average or median sales price.

The following chart (click for full-screen dynamic chart) show the price movement since 1991 to each index.