Wow never realised these times were so good!

[PurpleGorilla]

How UK incomes have risen (and fallen) since 1948 - Telegraph

What confuses me, is how folk with less disposable income could afford such big houses in the past when times were so tough?

[vetran]

How UK incomes have risen (and fallen) since 1948 - Telegraph

What confuses me, is how folk with less disposable income could afford such big houses in the past when times were so tough?

being an average people like Ambromavich tend to muck up the figure.

Personal and household finances in the UK | Visual.ONS

look at the graph that shows different types of households

"Real equivalised household disposable income"

and

Breakdown of average total household expenditure

[PurpleGorilla]

I guess if the number of people working in a household has increased that might also skew the figures?

[vetran]

I guess if the number of people working in a household has increased that might also skew the figures?

not as much as you would think.

From the Equalised Graph it seems the growth looks fairly linear despite 2 parents or even 2 generations working which suggests that wages are lower in real terms.

[pjclarke]

Equivalised is now my word of the day.

[WTFH]

How UK incomes have risen (and fallen) since 1948 - Telegraph

What confuses me, is how folk with less disposable income could afford such big houses in the past when times were so tough?

Because we consider many things "essential" now which were previously luxuries.


Taking kids away at half term/Easter & summer for foreign holidays? 30 years ago it was rare, now it's almost compulsory
Multi-car households? Rare 50 years ago, maybe some households would have 2 cars, but there weren't households where everyone over 17 had a car.
Mobile phone/broadband/subscription TV
Then there's the tablets, computers, gadgets, and we tend to replace rather than repair.
Consumerism is just that - consuming things.
...but if we don't have the latest and greatest, then we can't boast about it on Facebook and our lives are over.

[PurpleGorilla]

Because we consider many things "essential" now which were previously luxuries.


Taking kids away at half term/Easter & summer for foreign holidays? 30 years ago it was rare, now it's almost compulsory
Multi-car households? Rare 50 years ago, maybe some households would have 2 cars, but there weren't households where everyone over 17 had a car.
Mobile phone/broadband/subscription TV
Then there's the tablets, computers, gadgets, and we tend to replace rather than repair.
Consumerism is just that - consuming things.
...but if we don't have the latest and greatest, then we can't boast about it on Facebook and our lives are over.

But everything you list has gone down in price.

So why is housing so expensive?

[DimPrawn]

But everything you list has gone down in price.

So why is housing so expensive?

[PurpleGorilla]

Wow never realised these times were so good!

And maybe a little bit of this.



Thanks guys.

[OwlHoot]

How UK incomes have risen (and fallen) since 1948 - Telegraph

What confuses me, is how folk with less disposable income could afford such big houses in the past when times were so tough?

I'm guessing ..

1. There weren't so many people about, especially in the years soon after WW1 and WW2

2. Mortgages were tougher to obtain, for anyone but self-evidently regular savers over several years, with good prospects, and many didn't have the means or the self-discipline to save like that.

2. Massive housebuilding projects after the WWs meant there wasn't such a shortage, and many people preferred newer smaller houses as the older ones, with Victorian wiring and leaky windows etc, tended to be money pits

3. Incredible as it sounds to us today, until about the '60s big houses and/or houses with large gardens and even oodles of acres of land were generally seen as a burden