What's The Similarity Between Mortgage Providers and Ratings Agencies?

The Telegraph reports that Ray Boulger of mortgage broker John Charcol thinks that house price indices, provided by mortgage providers, are a farce.

"The way providers of house price indices seasonally adjust their figures is a farce (or, seasonally adjusted, a comedy).

In many months the seasonal adjustment skews the real figures so much the result is that the comment generated is often misleading."

The issue runs much deeper than seasonal adjustments.

Mortgage providers' statistics are to the housing market, what ratings agencies' ratings are to sovereign debt. Both parties use their "ratings/stats" to manipulate the market to make money out of it.

Of course the statistics are unreliable!