09-06-2008, 11:45 PM
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Why Houses Cost More in Summer
It's still a miserable year to be selling a house. In May, for example, U.S. house prices fell by 0.4 percent, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight Index. (The raw data are here.)
Except: They didn't. House prices actually rose in May, albeit very slightly, according to exactly the same source.
Why the difference? The first number is the result of "seasonal adjustment," an attempt to strip out predictable calendar patterns and report just the underlying trend. House prices usually surge in May, and this May the surge was so limp that after seasonal adjustment, it was a fall...
An economics mystery -- why houses cost more in summer -- has finally been solved. - By Tim Harford - Slate Magazine
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