' A chicken would cost £50'

[stopitandtidyupp]

Leisurely watching ' The big questions'
discussing is London only for the rich?

One woman said if house prices were a chicken then a chicken would now cost £50. Now she meant in London but I wonder about the rest of the country.

I live in the NE and I am struggling to get on the ladder.

I guess my AIBU to be annoyed at house prices and is there an answer?

The impact to society of young people having to move away for work and accommodation is huge.

There is no way my kids will be able to afford to live in our city with prices the way they are. So, if they have kids my grandchildren will be away, and when we are elderly we will be isolated.

I see this happening now with my own parents. They are only an hour away from me - but they would need to consider moving nearer us now (in their 70s) to build up a social network here before they are less able in order for us to be able to provide support as needed. And why would they do that? They are both fit, sociable, busy and having a ball where they are.

Realistically, an ageing population, fewer tax payers, zero planning for residential homes and an unknown economic impact of Brexit - means older or frail people will have fewer choices about where to live than they do now. Which is why, when we did an extension, the kitchen became a massive bathroom with space for a hoist and a double sized shower. Just incase.

The kids (currently teens) all have their own room, there's a "family room" which could be a downstairs bedroom which is accessible to the outside.

I feel we are future proof as long as it's only one set of grandparents wanting to move in - but, ONLY because of luck - we both had flats sold at the boom and bought a doer-upper which took us 15 years because we did bit by bit until we could afford a second mortgage for the extension.

Our parents are baby boomers and so both sets are sitting on large sums of money. They can fund their own care packages, but be here - if that's what they want.

A lot of luck, a bit of planning and a large dollop of cynicism that the government has a fiscally sound plan means that my family has options.

Here's hoping we don't all hate each other when we're living like Charlie Bucket's family...

A friend of mine was earning 30k. She complained to me that as a single person she would never be able to save for a deposit and that houses were rising too much for her ever to be able to buy a house, so she'd just kind of given up and was wasting all her money.

I told her she should just start saving and prices might come down again. She started scrimping and saving and managed to save 100k in 6 years by not buying stuff and not going out much. Then she met a man with similar savings to her and they bought a beautiful 5 bed house in a nice part of London together.

The moral of the story is?

That some people are more fortunate than others.

She was fortunate, but she didn't think she was. If she'd carried on with that attitude she would probably still be renting.

It’s also fact that wages have not risen anywhere near as fast as house prices

This. Of course it's easy to say that people should be more willing to live at home until they're 25 (with parents who don't charge rent), to never go out or travel or buy anything new, and then move to a new part of the country where they don't know anyone. But they shouldn't have to do those things! And that's not a sense of entitlement – people in the past didn't have to do those things, and in a well-run developed country, people shouldn't need to.

It's all well and good giving personal accounts of how you managed to buy a house while young, but this is a national problem that can't be explained away with personal anecdotes. The bottom line is that the average house price to earnings ratio is significantly higher than it used to be. Meaning on average, it is much more difficult to buy a house. That's a fact. It was 7.77 in 2017 –compared to 3.0 in 2002.

but this is a national problem that can't be explained away with personal anecdotes.

It’s not a national problem though.
Different parts of the country have different problems.
House prices has stagnated in some areas and negative equity is a huge problem which means people can’t move.

I have loads of sympathy for people who live in areas where the house prices are ridiculous, it is a huge problem, but it’s not true to say it’s the same everywhere.

The moral of the story is

...That it is possible to buy a house? But nobody is saying that NOBODY can EVER buy a house. Just that it is much, much more difficult to do so now than it used to be, and is still getting even more difficult every year. Which is factually true.

And like I’ve said a hundred times on this thread, the OP lives in the north east where it’s just simply untrue to say that people on an average salary can afford to buy.

*cant afford to buy.

Sorry

House prices and wages in my area have stagnated for 10 years. I would like to see a wage rise so more people can afford to buy. It's not going to happen under this government any time soon. So, all any individual can do is try and think of other solutions - save hard, buy with a friend, move north, start a side business etc.

And like I’ve said a hundred times on this thread, the OP lives in the north east where it’s just simply untrue to say that people on an average salary can afford to buy

I was curious so I looked at the data for just the local authorities in the Northeast, and the average house price to average income ratio has gone from 2.65 in 2002 to 5.15 in 2017.

So basically doubled.

housing as gone up way more than inflation but in terms of inflation the price of technology (TV's computers etc) food and clothing is much cheaper than it was
so if you take inflation and prices from 1965, 75, 85 etc somethings are relatively much more but other things are relatively speaking much cheaper

www.countydurhamhousinggroup.co.uk/latest-news/local-people-need-43-pay-rise-to-afford-a-home-in-the-north-east/

I had a look at ratios around North East England. Best seemed to be 4.5 for County Durham. Others into 6+.

Yes that’s the average house price, but there are still large portions of the north east where houses are affordable and haven’t risen at all in 5 years, some have even fallen.

My house price is just now finally back to where it was before the 2008 crash.

I’m not saying it’s not hard, or that it’s the same everywhere but you can get a really decent house for 100k in the north east easy distance to a major city, that’s not out of reach for most people.

And like I’ve said a hundred times on this thread, the OP lives in the north east where it’s just simply untrue to say that people on an average salary can afford to buy.

Yes I am lucky enough that I will be able to eventually buy. It is a lot harder than it was first time round and I think, all be it a weird comment, the chicken comment got me thinking. As did the fact I have lived in both the SE and NE.

4.5 isn’t affordable though. There can’t be large areas - the figures show that isn’t the case. On an average salary, you should be able to afford an average house.

OP's question was is she being unreasonable to be annoyed at house prices, and some people have responded that she is, simply because by taking some extreme measures or living in very specific areas of the country she could buy a house.

I think when talking about whether as a country we should be annoyed about house prices, it's more relevant to talk about the factual average situation nationwide.

I'm an older millenial. I bought a house aged 30 after years of financial restraint and sacrifices, on a below average wage, while supporting a SAHM and 2 children (we broke up shortly before I bought the house).

And I'm in the south of England, so houses aren't cheap here, and I had no help from relatives. The only thing I had in my favour was that we lived in a housing association flat for 4 years, but the rent was only slightly cheaper than the market rate (we'd been living in an identical flat just round the corner previously).

So it can be done. Not easily, but it can be done.

All these people saying “oh just move, it’s just what you have to do, make new friends”, what about care for elderly parents who live five hours down the motorway? Who lends a hand if you’re child gets sick and you have to work? Lucky you getting on fine with no family support and all your new friends but it’s not so easy or simple for most people.

So it can be done. Not easily, but it can be done

Again, I don't think OP—or anyone—is asking "is it possible?" Of course people are still buying houses, so it quite clearly is possible.

TAAT if it's allowed. But I started a thread where we worked out that £10k in London property prices 35 years ago would be worth £100k today. That's sound.

In chicken terms: a free range chicken in a central London supermarket costs an average £13 today. In 1989 supermarkets didn't sell free range chickens but I could get one for about £1.50.

I'd really like someone much smarter at maths than me to work out the rate of inflation.

But the average house price includes all the houses, most people don’t buy their family home as their first house, they buy a cheaper home and then upgrade.

Look on rightmove at chester le street, lemmington, High Heaton, which are all perfectly reasonable places to live, and you’ll be able to find 2/3 bedroom houses for around 100k or even less that would be a great starter home.

living in very specific areas of the country she could buy a house.

The area in which she lives already!!

If she lived in Brighton I would be like ‘yeah you’ve got no chance’ but she doesn’t she lives in an area where you can buy a decent home for under 100k

But the average house price includes all the houses, most people don’t buy their family home as their first house, they buy a cheaper home and then upgrade.

It also includes the mansions bought by billionaires. Are we having a debate on the merits of using the mean to identify trends over time now?

That's a rhetorical question btw. I'm done with the discussion. On average, it is much more difficult to buy a house now than it was 15 years ago. That is a fact. I'm not interested in anecdotes.

I'm aware that it's probably harder for people to get a deposit together these days but people appear to have different priorities, ie a fancy wedding, 2 or 3 children, holidays overseas, etc and then when the woman becomes a SAHM, it becomes almost impossible.

Had they both worked, got evening and weekend jobs, no holidays, budgetted and saved hard before they did all of the above, maybe they would now be in their own home, albeit with a mortgage.

NameChangeOhNameChange1 I couldn't agree more with your post. Very well said.