IELTS Writing Task 1: 'in' and 'by' with dates Look at the following description: In 2002, the cost of an average house in the UK was around £130,000 By 2007, the average house price had risen to almost £190,000, but it fell back to just under £150,000 in 2008 Notice the verbs used with "in" and "by": • • • I used "in" with the past simple (was, fell) I used "by" with the past perfect (had risen) to give the idea that the increase had happened in the years leading up to 2007 To avoid worrying about "by + past perfect" you could write: "Between 2002 and 2007, the average house price rose to "