How to find out house prices in your area

Whether you're thinking of buying or letting a house or any other property in the next few months/years, it's a good idea to keep your eye on how much similar properties are selling for in the area you're considering.

We get a fair idea of whether house prices are rising and falling across the country from our national newspapers, often accompanied by scare tactic hyperbole or mind-easing storytelling, depending on how the economic journalist is feeling that particular day.

But the disparity of house prices across the country is vast. So, it's a much better idea to keep your eye on things a little more locally. You can get fairly specific information... even down to a particular street.

Using an independent website such as houseprices.co.uk allows you to just type in the area you are looking for into a search box and it'll bring up all the information that you're after straight away. It gives you a list of all the properties that have been sold in that area, right down to the street name and gives you the price that it sold for.

The Land Registry's House Price Index is the most accurate independent provider of statistical information on house prices in the UK. You can check the average house price in any area in the UK here: http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/houseprices/housepriceindex/report/

So keep up with it and good luck with your buy or sale.