Measuring Up: What's the Right Way to Gauge House Prices?

House prices generally excite conversations, particularly in Australia where the cost of residential property is through the roof. In broad economic terms, house prices may provide an indicator of a nation's financial stability, but finding accurate figures is tricky due to market volatility, relatively low turnover and time lags in reporting data. The popular measure of median house sale prices does not tell the full story, argues Jan de Haan of Statistics Netherlands, who has been working on a handbook aimed at harmonising global house price indices for the European Commission's Eurostat. He outlines the right way to measure up.