MeVsWorld

I’ve often heard it, always from the older generations…

“Isn’t it about time you got your foot on the property ladder, settled down”.

Lets run through some numbers.

If you are between 50 and 60 years old now you would have probably paid between 15k and 30k for a house, lets take an example of a house in a quiet countryside village costing 25k in 1980. The average salary was around 8k a year.

Fast forward to 2008 and the average house price (170k) is just short of 8 times the average salary. In the 1930’s and 40s the average house only cost a years salary. And the quality of properties that make up the mid range of these averages has gone down considerably. 1st time buyers are pretty much restricted to town and city living which was not the case until recent years.

So if you are between 20 and 30, and people of your parents age say something like:
“When we were your age we had a nice little cottage and the wife was expecting” you can remind them that their cottage was probably priced below the average for the year, costing around 2 years salary.

Today that same cottage would be valued above average at around 10 times their salary - I wonder would they have been so quick to settle down and start a family under these circumstances.

I think not!