By Charlotte Beugge

Another day, another house price index - and another picture of how the housing market fared last year and will be this year. According to LSL/Acadametrics, house prices nationally fell by 0.5%, but rose by 0.2% in December.

In common with other indices, it found that prices in London bucked the national trend and rose by 3.1% over the year. But it also shows that prices in Wales rose by 0.7% over 2011.

The best-known housing price index - and possibly the one with the largest sample size - is the Halifax. It found that house prices nationally fell by 1.3% last year. But the Halifax index and that of its rival Nationwide is based on mortgage valuations, not actual sales.

Possibly the most accurate index is the Land Registry as it is based on sales, but it always comes out a month later than the Halifax and Nationwide.

The government has its own index, the Communities and Local Government Index which is still relatively new so it's not tested yet. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' index has been going since 1978 and uses Bank of England figures.

All house price indices are probably of more interest for dinner party conversation, as how much a house will sell for is down to such particular market conditions that house price indices can only give a general indication.