Young Singles and the Housing Market

Whilst I'm using Coutts' figures. Wow, are my generation getting stuffed on the housing market. At age 18 when I first started working and looking at moving a decent starter home was going for £70,000. With no parent assistance, a young adult needs time to save a deposit.

5 years later, those same houses are going for £125,000+, but mortgage lending guidelines are still pretty much the same as 5 years ago. They can lend 2.5 (as a couple) or 3.25 times your salary. Average income in the country being on or around £22,000 looks like a newcomer to the housing market is going to need a £50,000 deposit.

This is the situation Gordon Brown has overseen as Chancellor, lets hope he makes a better job at fixing the mess as Prime Minister.

Time to go and do some reading to see if their is some aid somewhere...

UK HOUSE PRICES FOR A TYPICAL FIVE BED PROPERTY Source: Coutts
(£'s)

	2005	2000	1990	1980
London	1,740,000	879,295	591,559	209,718
South East	956,000	578,978	361,832	128,174
South West	750,000	408,097	268,301	98,869
East	774,000	446,223	306,422	107,867
West Midlands	650,000	357,797	248,973	74,273
North West	616,000	325,193	245,537	72,704
East Midlands	576,000	303,261	221,589	72,609
Yorkshire and the Humber	586,000	288,821	225,819	72,991
Wales	540,000	285,934	223,165	68,309
North East	530,000	267,955	203,280	67,570
UK average	771,800	414,155	289,648	97,308

Technorati Tag = House Prices Personal Finance