Why exactly are houses so expensive?

Mrs_Arcanum

ukcarper wrote: »

To be honest I don't know what you are trying to say.

Shall I sum up things for you houses prices are higher may be 20% higher than they were in 1952 while food is almost 4x as expensive. What has the amount of debt got to do with that.

Readily available mortgages & credit have falsely increased peoples spending power in relation to income.

ukcarper

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Readily available mortgages & credit have falsely increased peoples spending power in relation to income.

Perhaps it has but what has that got to do with the price of bread.

Graham_Devon

ukcarper wrote: »

To be honest I don't know what you are trying to say.

Shall I sum up things for you houses prices are higher may be 20% higher than they were in 1952 while food is almost 4x as expensive. What has the amount of debt got to do with that.

Well if you can't figure it out, after I have talked about all the other costs associated with living today (cars etc) then I'm afraid I will have to give up carper.

With respect, I'll say it again, the weekly food shop cost is a complete irrelevance when you look at the expansion of credit. You are trying to isolate every part of the article, rather than looking at it as a whole.

ukcarper

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Well if you can't figure it out, after I have talked about all the other costs associated with living today (cars etc) then I'm afraid I will have to give up carper.

With respect, I'll say it again, the weekly food shop cost is a complete irrelevance when you look at the expansion of credit. You are trying to isolate every part of the article, rather than looking at it as a whole.

Perhaps you can explain why it is irrelevent as you haven't yet.

I believe you are trying to divert the attenion away from the fact that you have £600 a month more to spend on other things than you would have had if food was still the same price relative to 1952.

Graham_Devon

Officially given up. Sorry.

Mrs_Arcanum

If it is any help (comparison wise). Our food bill is far less less than my parents was in the 50s as a proportion of income. Also bear in mind they only had one wage earner.

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

With respect, I'll say it again, the weekly food shop cost is a complete irrelevance when you look at the expansion of credit. You are trying to isolate every part of the article, rather than looking at it as a whole.

Hang on a minute. You've posted a blog which you think is lovely. The basis of the article is to compare house prices against the price of the weekly food shop. Now you're saying the weekly food shop is irrelevant.

There are many ways of measuring house prices i.e. pounds & pence, vs wages, vs household income etc. This is a new one - the egg vs house price index - do you think it'll take over from the land reg?

System

wotsthat wrote: »

land reg?

land egg?

Thankyou, thankyou, I'm here all week.

ukcarper

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Officially given up. Sorry.

In other words you can’t

I understand the bit about you have some expenses that you wouldn’t have had in 1952 but not what credit has to do with it.

[Deleted User]

It's a shame I can't find any stats on average household earnings - not individual.

So.. my pet theory on house price increase is that it's down to womens lib and population boom:

Houses have sold for as much as people are able to pay for them - and people tend to borrow as much as possible to get the best house they can. Between the 50s and now, far more women joined the workforce and pushed household incomes up .. and therefore borrowing.

I believe that the UK population has risen, along with average salaries (as we've become less industrialised). This has pushed more people into a position where they're able to buy homes. However, I don't believe the number of available homes has risen to match the same proportion. So, it's a normal supply and demand problem that's pushed house prices also (combined with a greater household income which means people sold their houses for ever increasing amounts). We hit crazy season around 2007 when the banks would lend anyone and their dog a 6x mortgage with no deposit.