It can be done...

Jack_Johnson_the_acorn

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38564137

Too many people on here focus on the SE property market. But as this BBC article shows. Young people can afford to buy a decent house. If you're prepared to save and work hard, buying a house is relatively easy. I was 25 when I became a homeowner and my wife 24.

Some helpful hints in the article for the likes of Crashy etc.

AFF8879

If you think about how society has changed in the past 20-30 years, even completely discounting immigration people have become much more mobile. Thinking back to my parents generation, moving across the country would be rare - you grew up, went to school, worked, raised children and retired in the same area. As that's where your family and support network was.

Nowadays it's the norm for kids to go to university halfway across the country or even abroad, then graduate and take a job in London/another city. Combining this with the shift from industry to services, communication enhancements meaning you we no longer need to be geographically close to our families, etc, and it all contributes towards concentration of people in areas of wealth.

As long as this trend continues the problems will only exacerbate, so there either needs to be more house building in the areas people want to live or a shift in focus of the economy, and job/wealth creation in other parts of the country (e.g. The northern powerhouse).

Herzlos

That's great if you can get a job somewhere with cheap housing.

For everyone else, if we want cheap housing then we're looking at fairly long commutes.

steampowered

Sure, it is still possible to buy a home at 25. It is just much more difficult. The percentage of people owning their home at age 25 has declined from about 30% for babyboomers to about 10% for today's young people.

Here's a graph from the Daily Telegraph:


Out of interest, did you live with your parents until you were 25 and your wife 24? Because that is what everyone in the BBC article did.

ukcarper

steampowered wrote: »

Sure, it is still possible to buy a home at 25. It is just much more difficult. The percentage of people owning their home at age 25 has declined from about 30% for babyboomers to about 10% for today's young people.

Here's a graph from the Daily Telegraph:


Out of interest, did you live with your parents until you were 25 and your wife 24? Because that is what everyone in the BBC article did.

I don't think that is just down to affordablity things were totally different in the 60s and 70s

steampowered

ukcarper wrote: »

I don't think that is just down to affordablity things were totally different in the 60s and 70s

True. Things like increased numbers of people going to university does contribute to the decline in home ownership among 20 year olds.

But I don't think it explains the dramatic drop in home ownership among 35 year olds.

60% of people born in 1970 owned their own home by 35. The figure is 40% for people born in 1980. That is a drop of a third in only 10 years and to me that is extremely concerning.

ukcarper

steampowered wrote: »

True. Things like increased numbers of people going to university does contribute to the decline in home ownership among 20 year olds.

But I don't think it explains the dramatic drop in home ownership among 35 year olds.

60% of people born in 1970 owned their own home by 35. The figure is 40% for people born in 1980. That is a drop of a third in only 10 years and to me that is extremely concerning.

In relation to earnings prices were the lowest they have been since the 50s in the mid 90s and remained below the long term average in the early 2000s, since then prices in relation to earnings have increased and are now at an all time high, that obviously has had an effect.

dekoder

AFF8879 wrote: »

If you think about how society has changed in the past 20-30 years, even completely discounting immigration people have become much more mobile. Thinking back to my parents generation, moving across the country would be rare - you grew up, went to school, worked, raised children and retired in the same area. As that's where your family and support network was.

Nowadays it's the norm for kids to go to university halfway across the country or even abroad, then graduate and take a job in London/another city. Combining this with the shift from industry to services, communication enhancements meaning you we no longer need to be geographically close to our families, etc, and it all contributes towards concentration of people in areas of wealth.

As long as this trend continues the problems will only exacerbate, so there either needs to be more house building in the areas people want to live or a shift in focus of the economy, and job/wealth creation in other parts of the country (e.g. The northern powerhouse).

The society could change in the next 20-30 years to balance this trend (or to worsen it of course).
Two changes that could balance it are significant increase of remote workers and human workers being increasingly replaced by robots. Both quite probable in my opinion.