Watch: Making sense of all this housing data

Photo / Michael Craig

Confused about the real estate market? You're probably not alone.

With at least six sets of major data out every month it can be hard to make sense of - especially as it sometimes appears to tell a different story.

Last week it was Quotable Value and today we get REINZ figures for July.

Here's a users' guide to help explain what is issued, when, what it means and how important it is.

All the information has slightly different perspective. But it's all good and helps economists to build an over all trend.

Just be aware of what you're looking at when you study any particular single set of data.

Six of the best

• Realestate.co.nz: Asking price.

• Quotable Value: Average home values.

• Harcourts: Median and average sale prices.

• Barfoot & Thompson: Medians, averages, listings, sales volumes.

• TradeMe Property: Price expectations.

• REINZ: Unconditional sales prices and volumes