YANBU hundredacre..but the issue is that it isnt a millenial/baby boomer thing. Thats just bullshit touted around the press.
The real reasons for rampaging house prices are;
The 2008 financial crisis /credit crunch caused a rush to buy tangible assets be it gold,silver,land ,houses because those with money realised that if they kept it as cash, it would be devalued. They had to engage in wealth preservation and capital growth somehow and that wasnt going to happen in a savings ISA.
The other area that people piled into was the stock market which is still riding high.
The people paying for all this are those with cash savings and those with little disposable income because rampaging inflation is slowly making them all poorer.
Of course the smart money could see it coming a while before the big crash of 2008. Way back in 2002 an ounce of gold was around £200.
By 2008 it had doubled to around £450 and today,well its around £960.
Its the same ounce of gold so why is it dearer? Answer,well you need more pounds to buy it and why? Because the pound has been devalued by creating more of them in an effort to restart the economy by the mechanism of QE. Its a total ponzi scheme and a sham.
But back to houses. Houses are tangible assets and assisted by QE they became more costly just like Gold.
Unfortunately peoples incomes didnt go up to match this inflation in prices.
Coupled with this, people are being conned. The media has no end of programmes about getting on the so called housing laddder, homes under the hammer etc etc.
People will enslave themselves to a lifetime of debt in their rush to get a mortgage and yet the British live in the smallest,cramped most overpriced homes in the whole of the developed world.
Meanwhile your government, both labour and tory have made the situation worse by inventing all manner of schemes to keep the whole ponzi scheme afloat.
What right do Governments have to use taxpayers money to keep house prices high by subsidising new housebuilding and lining the pockets of the big housebuilders?
What else will they subsidise? new cars (oh they did that,the scrappage scheme)
The way to solve the housing crisis is the place strict controls on foreign investment in both new build and the purchase of property just to leave it empty.
Housebuilders must be prevented from land banking.
ALL land in the UK MUST be registered at HM registry whether it has been traded or not. HM Land registry currently connives with landowners to hide who "owns" all the land.
Housing assocs must be facilitated to build more affordable housing for affordable sales and rentals.
I would make it compulsory to build three storey family homes and not 2 storey. This would mean more homes on smaller land parcels but homes of decent size rather than rabbit hutches.
Housebuilding should be a fairer deal for all. It should not be an investment vehicle.
The problem is that Governments are too cowardly to take the pin out and burst the housing bubble because it would leave swathes of people in negative equity and stall the economy.
But the economy is built on wobbly foundations anyway and what does it matter about negative equity?
Who said that house prices must always rise? What use is it anyway? If you sell your house for more than you paid then you have to pay more for a new one?
If your paying £500 a month mortgage on a negative eq house so what? Stay there and keep paying your £500 and in ten years time your £500 pm will have been devalued by inflation.
Dont assume that all so called baby boomers are loade, have DB pensions and a big fat paid off house. It is far far far from the truth.