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> Housing is obscenely expensive for young couples in most major metros This will probably be an unpopular comment, but I think this is true for every generati

> Housing is obscenely expensive for young couples in most major metros This will probably be an unpopular comment, but I think this is true for every generation, and is a simple byproduct of having young people earning comparatively low salaries compared to people who have been working for a decade or two already. I'm in my 40s now, and while I'd have loved to buy a house in my 20s, I couldn't afford it until my 30s. At the time, I thought it was very unfair that all the housing I wanted was priced just out of reach of the maximum mortgage I could get, but a decade of pay rises later, and I could just afford to get on the property ladder but I had no spare money left over each month, and another decade later my mortgage costs were a relatively small fraction of my income and I have a comfortable lifestyle now. I think the only difference with the current generation of youngsters is that they are far more vocal about it, whereas my generation just accepted it as part of life and quietly put up with it. It's pretty much the same that every generation of teenagers believes their parents couldn't possibly understand how unfair life is, until a decade or so later, when they've grown up a bit more and realise that they've become the same as their parents after all.

xen0 3y ago
Median annual salary in the UK in 1999 was £19k. Average house price was £75k; a bit over treble. Median salary 2022 was £33k. Median house price was £265k; over 8 times the median salary. Not controlled for interest rates or changes in the tax codes, nor the increases in student loan debts.
- ralferoo 3y ago
  There was a massive boom in property prices just after 1999 though, which I'd argue was far more significant to the difference you cite. Looking at: https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/property-statistics/nationwide-average-house-price/ https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/property-statist... The average price in Q4 1999 was £75k, the average price in Q3 2007 was £184k, the average price in Q3 2022 was £273k (the last two are the peaks), the average price in 2023 has already started to dip. So, in 8 years prices went up 145%, and in the following 15 years prices went up 48%. I bought in the latter half of that first spike I mentioned, and anecdotally, while I was looking but still unable to afford anything (ultimately, it was only possible when my bank changed their rules and afford 4x salary rather than 3x), prices in the area I was looking rose 50% in the 6 months prior to buying my house. In the years since then, its value has only increased by a little over 50%. Looking further back, the previous peak was in 1989 at £62k. 10 years earlier in 1979 the average price was £19k, a rise of 226%. So, this isn't a recent phenomena, what's recent is that people are more vocal in complaining that they can't afford to get on the property ladder. My point is that it's always been tough, but if people who can't afford now keep saving then in a few years they'll find their savings and wage increases will let them catch up with the house price plateau. I think the only difference we've seen so far is that the last plateau wasn't very flat, and after an initial drop, prices have continued to increase but slower than inflation.

xen0 3y ago

Median annual salary in the UK in 1999 was £19k. Average house price was £75k; a bit over treble. Median salary 2022 was £33k. Median house price was £265k; over 8 times the median salary. Not controlled for interest rates or changes in the tax codes, nor the increases in student loan debts.

ralferoo 3y ago
There was a massive boom in property prices just after 1999 though, which I'd argue was far more significant to the difference you cite. Looking at: https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/property-statistics/nationwide-average-house-price/ https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/property-statist... The average price in Q4 1999 was £75k, the average price in Q3 2007 was £184k, the average price in Q3 2022 was £273k (the last two are the peaks), the average price in 2023 has already started to dip. So, in 8 years prices went up 145%, and in the following 15 years prices went up 48%. I bought in the latter half of that first spike I mentioned, and anecdotally, while I was looking but still unable to afford anything (ultimately, it was only possible when my bank changed their rules and afford 4x salary rather than 3x), prices in the area I was looking rose 50% in the 6 months prior to buying my house. In the years since then, its value has only increased by a little over 50%. Looking further back, the previous peak was in 1989 at £62k. 10 years earlier in 1979 the average price was £19k, a rise of 226%. So, this isn't a recent phenomena, what's recent is that people are more vocal in complaining that they can't afford to get on the property ladder. My point is that it's always been tough, but if people who can't afford now keep saving then in a few years they'll find their savings and wage increases will let them catch up with the house price plateau. I think the only difference we've seen so far is that the last plateau wasn't very flat, and after an initial drop, prices have continued to increase but slower than inflation.