OUT OF THIS WORLD: A GIANT STEP FOR HOUSE PRICES

On 20th July, the world will commemorate 50 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took those legendary first steps on the moon. For anyone of 45 years plus, you probably remember cramming around the black and white TV to watch that historic moment, probably with some poor chap standing with the TV aerial to make sure you didn't lose reception mid-event!

The world has changed immeasurably over the intermediate 50 years:

• British tennis player, Ann Jones, had just won Wimbledon
• England were world football champions
• The Rolling Stones were number 1 in the charts with Honky Tonk Women
• The internet had not been thought of!

In July 1969, the thought of owning your own property was not the norm for working-class families, and although the average home would have cost £3,859, it was 4.5 times the normal working wage, and that was a big feat to consider.

Funny how 50 years later, with all of the world at our fingertips, air travel so easy, business being carried out electronically, huge advances in pretty much everything, we find ourselves still struggling with house purchase, but a mindset much different to that of 50 years ago, where many people feel it is their right to own a property rather than to rent one.  With average house prices in the UK now at £228,903, a staggering rise of 5,832 per cent on 50 years ago, calculating that into today's money would mean that buying a home in 1969 would have cost £64,333.  That would have been out the grasp of anyone bar the seriously rich! 

And, whilst buying a home in 1969 would have cost 4.5 times the average wage, UK properties now cost 8 times the average wage, so it is definitely very difficult for many people to make that first move onto the property ladder.  Of course, to further complicate matters between 1969 and 2019, families are very dis-jointed and rarely all live under one roof, as they did back in the day.  That means the cost of buying a property is much harder for those without family members to give a helping hand.