>I would love to know the proportion of people at, say, 25 that can afford to buy a house (in the area they grew up and of some reasonable size e.g. 3 bedroom)

>I would love to know the proportion of people at, say, 25 that can afford to buy a house (in the area they grew up and of some reasonable size e.g. 3 bedroom) over time. Sure, income has gone up, but so have house prices That question is more about how government is for young people than the economy. High Housing costs are mostly caused by local government policy. In places where developers can respond to demand housing isn't any more expensive today than it was in the last 50 years.