Ownership amongst the young

Windofchange

Well someone earning £35k is earning above the average. Anyway, off we go again. Same argument, different thread. The other two will be along shortly with their won't anyone think of the nurses catch phrase and some made up numbers. I'm off to bed.

ukcarper

Windofchange wrote: »

Well someone earning £35k is earning above the average. Anyway, off we go again. Same argument, different thread. The other two will be along shortly with their won't anyone think of the nurses catch phrase and some made up numbers. I'm off to bed.

If you take out the expensive regions London, south east and east median full time earnings are £25k. In the remaining regions with the exception of the south west the average prices is less than £120k.

Herzlos

Cakeguts wrote: »

Yes and someone who was prioritising buying a house would save up and move to a cheaper part of the country. There are lots of nice places you can live where you can buy a nice house for less than £155k. No one is forcing anyone to live in the most expensive places in the country.

Only if your job can move with you.

Plus, £35k is slightly above the average London salary, so you're still at the point where the average earner can't afford an average property anywhere near where their average job is.

economic

Herzlos wrote: »

Only if your job can move with you.

Plus, £35k is slightly above the average London salary, so you're still at the point where the average earner can't afford an average property anywhere near where their average job is.

why does it matter if the average wage earner cant afford the average property?

Herzlos

economic wrote: »

why does it matter if the average wage earner cant afford the average property?

Exactly...

GreatApe

Median full time working FTB couple should be able to afford the 25th percentile property. As it happens in much of the country they can afford the 75th percentile property.

Houses are affordable in most the UK regions. Prices could go up 50% overnight and still be affordable. It is what has happened in some places eg like Luton up 50% in 3 years or London up 50% between 2013-2016

I don't think prices are going to go up another 50% within a short space of time. Price is set by simple supply and demand but of course lots of factors impact supply and lots of factors impact demand. So prices can go up or down irrespective of the fact that property is very affordable in many UK regions.

The bears don't seem to get that bit. They think accepting that 8-10 regions of the UK means accepting that 8-10 regions should be more expensive but that is not the case.
Saying stoke on Trent is very affordable does not mean prices are going to go up in stoke on Trent. Somewhere can be affordable yet get cheaper. A la the north over the last decade. Likewise places can be expensive yet get more expensive a LA London over the decade.

ukcarper

Herzlos wrote: »

Only if your job can move with you.

Plus, £35k is slightly above the average London salary, so you're still at the point where the average earner can't afford an average property anywhere near where their average job is.

I agree in London and large parts of South East property is unaffordable for people on median earnings, but not in the whole country.

ukcarper

GreatApe wrote: »

Median full time working FTB couple should be able to afford the 25th percentile property. As it happens in much of the country they can afford the 75th percentile property.

Houses are affordable in most the UK regions. Prices could go up 50% overnight and still be affordable. It is what has happened in some places eg like Luton up 50% in 3 years or London up 50% between 2013-2016

I don't think prices are going to go up another 50% within a short space of time. Price is set by simple supply and demand but of course lots of factors impact supply and lots of factors impact demand. So prices can go up or down irrespective of the fact that property is very affordable in many UK regions.

The bears don't seem to get that bit. They think accepting that 8-10 regions of the UK means accepting that 8-10 regions should be more expensive but that is not the case.
Saying stoke on Trent is very affordable does not mean prices are going to go up in stoke on Trent. Somewhere can be affordable yet get cheaper. A la the north over the last decade. Likewise places can be expensive yet get more expensive a LA London over the decade.

I don't agree with your interpretation of the figures, but there are clearly large parts of the country where property is affordable. I'd say the truth is somewhere in between your view and the view of Windofchange.

Cakeguts

lisyloo wrote: »

My husband was out of work for 12 months and spending everyday full full time looking, then found a job in London, that would pay enough to cover the London costs.

You are seeing things as black and white and life simply isn't like that for many people. You can't just go and pick up any job in your 50s.

Millions of people work in London because they can find jobs there.
Millions commute or stay with friends or stay in tiny studios, boats or air bob. Do you think they would all stand up for hours on trains if they didn't have to. either those millions are stupid or things aren't quite as black and white as you say. I'd plump for the latter.

From my experience lots of people work in London because the salaries are higher than the rest of the country. What they don't realise is that a higher salary doesn't mean that you can afford to live somewhere. I used to live in the Northwest and when I visited London at that time I was horrified by the kind of places that people were prepared to live in just to work in London. If these properties had been in the North West they would have been demolished because no one would buy them. Manchester and Liverpool are doing very well but when the BBC moved to Salford Quays quite a lot of staff refused to move out of London even though they would get a much better quality of life in Manchester. They ran coach tours with staff to show them the local area because lots of the people from London didn't know anything about where they were moving to and assumed that it wouldn't be as nice. There are some jobs that are London based but there are lots of jobs that you can do in London and in another part of the country and as someone I met a while back realised they could take a pay cut and still afford to rent a 4 bed house instead of a 1 bed flat when they moved out of London.

If you can buy a 3 bed house for under £100k 2 working people on minimum wage can afford a house. The argument that you have to work in London doesn't stand up. It is all down to choice. So if someone takes a job in London and can't earn enough to buy a house that is their choice.

I have done the moving thing to buy a house.

lisyloo

Even in London there are cheap places you can buy.
It probably isn't what you want e.g. It might be above a kebab shop,but people have always started off by making compromises.

I don't subscribe to the apple/Starbucks point of view, but I do think young people seem to want it now I.e. An average family home as their first property. It has never been that way in the past.
So we shouldn't be looking at average homes, we should be looking at the smallest I.e. 1 bed flat for a couple.

These are affordable in Luton to commute to London.
It's not somewhere I'd desire to live, but if I was desperate to buy id consider my options.