The data speak for themselves
Two stories based on exactly the same data from the Real Estate Institute.
Modest revival for housing market: Stuff
Big jump in house prices: Herald
“Modest revival” is the press release description. The Herald has more sources and pretty interactive graphics showing more details.
The disagreement isn’t necessarily a bad thing: journalists should be doing interpretation, not just copying press releases. What is a bad thing is that no-one mentions inflation adjustment — Auckland’s ‘record’ median price is still way down from the peak when measured in constant dollars.
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »