Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/06/it-used-to-take-3-years-for-a.html
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That has created two classes in Britain: property owners and people who are getting poorer. And, of course, the poor are largely paying rent to the rich.
Let us not fool ourselves, that’s pretty much true the World over.
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The Tories have given up on the idea of home ownership as being an achievable aspiration for most people.
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Yep. I have given up on owning a house unless I win the lottery or something. Can’t get enough for a down payment and I’m pretty sure my credit is so bad, it wouldn’t matter anyhow.
God Bless America.
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The issue people are really highlighting is that a generation or two ago people thought everyone could be property owners, and that dream has died. Or, in other words, people got houses, then said, “Fuck you, I got mine.” and decided their grandchildren’s best employment opportunity ought to be as guinea pigs for experimental drugs.
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You think that dream has died because the olds are sticking it to the kids? I expect the bankers would be pleased to hear you say that. Nothing like pitting one class against another, except picking a fight between generations.
The Bush (43) Administration promoted the idea of an “ownership society,” but that really meant cheap credit for people who could not afford to own. Cheap credit inflates prices, for obvious reasons, which creates a bubble. Thank goodness we enacted safeguards against that ever happening again, which Mr. Trump is determined to repeal post-haste.
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I can’t help but think that the impression here is distorted, as the house-price average includes the areas of London (SW post codes) Surrey and Buckinghamshire where foreigners buy £6-million pound pads, and the income average includes presumably only those taxed in Britain.
I thought it was pretty well known that while the overall price of housing commutable to London has been increasing, it has been increasing much faster on the £million+ houses than on the lowest quartile. Housing supply has been keeping pace with demand at the top and bottom but is constricted in the middle.
I’d bet that drilling down into the data we will see that the rising average deposit/income is driven primarily by an increase in the spread of prices, and that if we pick and analyze regions with few million-pound properties we would find that the effect disappears there.
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You’re right, but you know, I just hate old people. Mostly because of shit like opposition to same sex marriage.
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Well then don’t marry them.
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I live in San Francisco. When I see “Full House” reruns the most immersion-breaking part of the show is that the family was able to afford a well-appointed home in a highly fashionable neighborhood on just three full-time salaries.
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Fucking harsh Dudette.
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I was just on the subway and saw this add for ‘Come take these drugs… we’ll give you money!’
It had this image of a bunch of smiling young professionals on it. With 15% unemployment among recent grads and a huge, unquanitifed underemployment problem (how would you like it for your first post graduation job to have an annual salary less than your student debt?) it’s seriously like the grandparents of the kids in that ad are using their grandchildren as guinea pigs with the promise of enough money to pay rent. (although I assume it was just some stupid stock photo or something)
This article is about a different piece of the same puzzle. My parents and grandparents own/owned property because they worked and bought it. People trying to enter the job market today may get to own property when they inherit it. It starts to seem like older people dying off is the only hope for the future. Then again, maybe old people dying has always been the hope for the future, it’s not like our turn isn’t coming.
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It might be distorted, but the problem is still across the UK. House prices in Oxford may start at more than ten times what I get get in a year, but I couldn’t even afford to get a mortgage on a house in the working class/lower middle class area of Carlisle where I grew up.
There are good reasons why I now live in Oxford rather than Carlisle, but I won’t go into them here.
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It would have to be a lot of money for me to consider it.
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Sounds like something from the 60’s.
But on a more serious note: It’s disgusting that our US Gov. allows Human drug trials that are completely legal and yet if you smoke some weed your damned to hell.
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Can anyone explain why this post has been flagged rather than rebutted if it’s not true? It appears not to be offensive just Politically Incorrect.
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My dad bought a house in Suburban Long Island for $25k, twice his salary, in 1961. it’s now worth half a million, but the median male income of the town is $50,000.
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Typical Grauniad spelling errors.
The last word in that headline should be rentiers.
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Which UK administration was this?
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