O/T - Just to cheer everyone up!

[Plain Peter]

Very sobering...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3018294

[Lloydie]

thanks for that, I'm currently viewing houses to buy as a first time buyer....

[Plain Peter]

15% when we first bought in 1980.
At least then house prices were relative to earnings.
You had to have been saving with the lender for a minimum of 2 years.
You needed a 10% deposit.
The mortgage loan was no more than 2.5 (or 3?) times the annual salary of the main bread-earner.
Things stayed relative for several years after, although interest rates did come down (thankyou Maggie!).
The lender needed verification and answers from your employer to a few pertinent questions.
We all know what happened during the Labour boom years, which is why people like you are being made to suffer.
Personally, I'd be content (not necessarily over-the-moon!) for house prices to drop significantly to sensible levels to kick-start the market.
So in my case a 40% drop from £200K = £120K wouldn't leave us out of pocket if we sold and then bought a property whose value had also decreased by 40%.