How do people afford £350,000+ houses

Not an housing expert but whenever I have heard or read any news about it the biggest problem has been the housing shortage.

 

There is no shortage according to this..

http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/revealed-many-empty-homes-9047327

610,000 empty homes

There is no shortage according to this..

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/revealed-many-empty-homes-9047327

 

 

610,000 empty homes

Sorry but maybe I misread it but it doesn't say in that there is no shortage?

Unless you saying that if these homes were inhabited then there would be no housing shortage? If so thats not true we still need to build many more homes than we currently do to keep up with demand.

Expectations have skyrocketed, though, that I'll grant you that without hesitation. Here's the thing: whether you're working in a low skilled job on NMW, or even a relatively highly-paid 'start' graduate job, you don't get to live like some made-for-TV aspirational figure, real or imagined, however much you'd like to, and/or think you're entitled to, on day one of deciding to move out of Mum and Dad. Unless you have the financial acumen of an ashtray, wherein Life™ will shortly begin to teach you a lesson or ten along the way.

 

It's the disconnect between the TV/media-peddled dream life and the steady reality which is the problem. Not affordability.

What a grim outlook.

Thank you. The main thing I was looking at was housing, but with other members contributions I got the list a bit longer.

 

With these figures, I suppose one could argue that it's more likely that there is more than one 'bread winner' in today's society on average compared to 1950.

 

Also outgoings today will include a far wider range of things that wouldn't have been available at the time - i.e. monthly subs to things like SKY (as people always mention) / mobile phones / far fewer electrical devices / much less choice in shops / heating wasn't as much available and people 'warmed up' in pubs / debt wouldn't have been as easy to accumulate / and people's expectations for material goods wouldn't have been as great / etc.

Electrical items were much more expensive twenty to thirty years ago. They are very cheap now compared to what I had to pay for my first essential, quite basic appliances eg fridge, washer and cooker. I had been married a few years before we could afford a freezer or video recorder / player. We had been married several months before we could afford an ex demo colour tv which we paid on interest free instalments. Credit was expensive back then so it was unusual for the shop manager to give us interest free payments.