to think that the norm of having a 2 working parent household, is fairly responisble for making housing cost so high

[carriedaxmaspud]

fair enough if both parent swant to work, its their choice, we are all differnt and want to do different things,
but seems to me that now the norm is for both parents to work, thats whats made house prices and rents go through the roof

i mean ther prices can only go up to what people can afford, so if buting a house was based on one persons wage not 2, the house prices would never have reached the outrageous prices they have.

It's a thought certainly. But it isn't the only factor by any means. Lots of people in reasonably priced rented accomodation have to have both parents working because the general cost of living is now so high.

supply and demand innit

and i suppose women working is the reason our ecomony is going down the shithole. you are being a tad reactionary

I think it's far more complicated than that. Do you believe that if 2 income households all gave up one job, the cost of living would come down proportionally? I don't think it would. From what I understand, astronomical inflation in the 70's pushed house prices up, not people suddenly deciding both partners should work.

chicken and egg I'd say

Chicken and egg - I'm sure there's lots of couples now who feel they both have to work in order to buy a house.

I think its the lenders who are mostly responsible - when DH and I were first buying you could only get 3 or maybe 4 times one salary plus one times the other salary so mortgages were realistically related to income.

Also increased by the 100% mortgages that were available, based purely on the bank speculating that the house price will continue to rise forever

You have a point - there was a book published a few years ago called the two-income trap which looked at the economics behind this.

But prices don't go up to what people can afford, they go up to what the seller can get. In a housing market where people are willing to overextend themselves in credit (and creditors are happy to let them), there are lots of foreign investors (certainly in London and Home Counties) and semi-prof B2L landlords the difference between " (potential) buyer afford" and "seller can get" can be enormous.

Ha, Grimma, great minds think alike

I type too slowly! GTN got there first

You could equally argue that it's the high cost of housing that means that many parents have to work more than they would otherwise wish to.

400000 new households every year
85000 new homes built.

supply and demand at work!

Ha, I was about a hundred years late with that one!

i agree its a bit chicken and egg

"Do you believe that if 2 income households all gave up one job, the cost of living would come down proportionally?"
no we are lumbered with it now can really reverse it.

yes its partly the fault of the lenders too.

Don't be daft..... House prices affected by supply and demand, especially relating to the skewed geographical distribution of jobs. There are still plenty of parts of the country where a family can buy a reasonable home on one average salary... but that wouldn't be in the job hotspots of the South East, for example. If anything else affects house-prices it's the exponential increase in single person households.... this has put a bigger squeeze on the availability of property than is often appreciated.

Its those feminists again, ruining everything with their having jobs and stuff.

I agree with you Carrie. The house price boom was an unforeseen consequence of women having careers. It may have been better in the 60's/70's if women had fought for the opportunity to work and their partners to be at home with the kids where it suited both to do so. Now both people often have to work whether they like it or not.

I am a SAHM; we are not well off as a result and are still in a 'starter' home whilst other couples we know (on double our income) are in much bigger and nicer houses. Sometimes I am a bit jealous but I remind myself that we also had that option but chose for one of us to remain at home whilst our children are below school age. Btw, the reason I am at home with the kids, not my husband, is because we were on roughly similar pay but his job is much less demanding than mine was so he can spend weekends and evenings with the children whereas if I was working I would never see them.

"you could only get 3 or maybe 4 times one salary plus one times the other salary so mortgages were realistically related to income."

Is that realistically related to income? Or the sexist assumption that a woman's salary doesn't "count" as she is only doing it for pin money and will stop when they have children?

excuse me i never said women, i said 2 parents working thankyou

carrie you don't have to say it.

No, the reason housing costs are so high in the UK is that the banks lent excessive income multiples.

Actually, melted, I didn't mention 100% mortgages, but yes, we had to have a decent deposit as well as the other constraint.

We bought after one price crash mid-80s. Shook our heads sadly as prices went up again... and crashed (black monday, people totally stuffed). Wondered if people would learn... nope.

There is still this delusion that houses are a form of investment. For some lucky people with good timing they may be, but ultimately they have to be linked to a large extent to incomes and hence normal inflation and so as soon as the prices start rising ahead of salaries/inflation then you can be sure - there will be trouble ahead.

A house is a place to live in not an investment.

"you could only get 3 or maybe 4 times one salary plus one times the other salary so mortgages were realistically related to income."

Is that realistically related to income? Or the sexist assumption that a woman's salary doesn't "count" as she is only doing it for pin money and will stop when they have children?

Trillian astra - thae reason they didn't count the woman's salary is because most women had kids and did not work after having them therefore it would have been foolish to count on her salary. That is a fact whether you approve of it or not. And now most women work after having kids as well as their partner, the banks will lend much more money to them, thus giving them the opportunity to spend more on houses and thus pushing the price up.

Yeah cos those men going out to work, thats a new thing.

Bollocks.

Yes, I think it is true this is a factor, along with more single person households, high wages/bonuses in the financial sector in London etc..(I seem to remember seeing the statistics somewhere).

Like Doigthebountyeater says its an unforeseen consequence of more women working. Pointing it out isn't being reactionary, or necessarily saying we should all go back to the 1950s.

suppose the breakups of families and many people living alone create a massive demand too thus pushing prices up even more.