House prices 105x what they were in 1952

System

It's an interesting comparison, but it's pointless thinking "if only" because obviously everything else was different too.

I should say the figures are broadly correct. I happen to know roughly what my parents and grandparents paid for their houses going back quite a long time.
In 1922 my grandfather bought a 4-bedroom detached house for about £500.
In 1946 my parents bought a 4-bedroom detached house for about £5,000.
In 1984 I sold a 4-bedroom house for about £50,000.
Give or take regional differences etc a 4-bedroom detached house now might cost £500,000.

That seems to point very very roughly to a historical 10-fold increase every generation.

J_J_Carter

Yep, with inflation every £1 of goods in 1952 is £24 now.

I suspect that in 1952, a fair chunk of the house price was the bricks and mortar. Now that vast majority of cost in a new build is the plot of land, hence housing density has shot up. (Anyone fancy an 'executive' 4-bed with 1m gap to next door?).

It goes without saying that a slump in house prices would push all of our banks into insolvency. That one reason why HMG can't risk allocating more green-belt for housing, if land costs dropped then the scarcity premium of existing houses would slump and everyone would be in negative equity. Everyone relies on the ongoing con, with 1st time buyers and now the 'bank of mum and dad' being robbed blind to keep the illusion going.

ukcarper

According to Nationwide the average house price in 1952 was £1.9k compared to £164k now about 87x.

According to measuring worth website wages have increased about 65x and RPI has increased about 25x.

Zero_Sum

ash28 wrote: »

OH was a fully qualified and trained air traffic engineer at Edinburgh Airport in 1982 and he earned around £8k.

I worked 3 nights in a pub - Thurs, Fri and Sunday night - I was well paid for pub work as my boss paid double time for a Sunday and paid for us all taxis home - I earned £26 a week.

We bought our first house in 1982 for £23.5k - a brand new 3 bed terrace.

We had 3 young children at the time and the house was the cheapest new build we could find - I had seen one I really liked but it was out of our price range - 3 bed semi built by Wimpey but it had no central heating and the rooms were very small - OH pointed out the small furniture - it was £28k and too expensive. We went for a new build because you needed a smaller deposit.

Our solicitors fees in Scotland at the time were £1k and we had to pay them monthly - as did most of our friends.

We moved at the end of last year (not from that house) and came across all the paper work for the house.

My house is a 3 bed Terrace, cost me £23,500 also.
Bought mine in 2002:)

jgh

My great-grandmother bought her house in 1952 for £750. £150 deposit and three annual payments of £200.

cepheus

I wonder if anyone can find a graph of real inflation adjusted house prices further back than this. Any talk of prices must acount for inflation of course or else the discision becomes meaningless. Note the graph has a false origin on the y axis which is also a bit misleading, this starts at 40k. So prices have really approximately tripled since 1975.

For larger graph press this link

puppypants

I remember my Father, when he worked as greengrocery buyer for Tesco in the mid 60s, hit the magic salary of £1000 per year and a company car! They had a house built and watched its progress from the foundations up. It cost them £5795 and they furnished it to a high standard.

ukcarper

cepheus wrote: »

I wonder if anyone can find a graph of real inflation adjusted house prices further back than this. Any talk of prices must acount for inflation of course or else the discision becomes meaningless. Note the graph has a false origin on the y axis which is also a bit misleading, this starts at 40k. So prices have really approximately tripled since 1975.

For larger graph press this link

RPI over period 1952 to 1975 was 3.43x while houses increased about 5.3x

Looking at that graph I would say house prices are just over 2x what they were in 1975 or about 2.5x 1977 but wages have increased by about 50% more than RPI over same period.

cepheus

Generali wrote: »

To put that into perspective, the RPI was 9.7 in 1952 and 240.8 now.

Inflation as measured by the RPI has been about 24x.

However, houses being bought today are very different from those that were up for sale in 1952. How much of the increase in price is down to double glazing, central heating, laminated flooring/fitted carpets, fan ovens, down lighters, fitted kitchens including dishwashers and freezers, multiple toilets/bathrooms, internet, TV & telephone connections?

The answer is nobody knows although doubtless many claim to know.

So that would make house about 4 times as expensive as 1952 not 105.

However I doubt if much of that is due to modern facilities. These are expected, in the same way that mains electricity, gas and water was expected in 1952. No it's mostly down to wages. More money pushes up prices. Another factor in the UK is space and population although I doubt if this is as significant as wages.

Remember, high prices make us poorer not richer, this applies to houses as well. Providing you don't sell out or downgrade in some way, high prices simply means you end up living in a worse quality or smaller property than you would if they were cheaper (in relation to wages). This is one of the classic cons of the Financial world and everyone falls for it!

ariba10

We we're married in 1951 and bought our house in 1952.--- £900..00 on a twenty year mortgage.

I was earning £6.20 for a 48hr week. ( Before deductions )

And we were called fools for putting a noose around our necks.