Housing affordability has remained at a seven-year high, despite the cost of property rising during 2009, research has showed.
Slight increases in average earnings, combined with falling mortgage rates, helped to offset the price rises seen last year, to leave housing affordability at its highest level since 2003, according to property website Zoopla.co.uk.
The group said 58pc of properties in Britain were currently affordable for someone on average local earnings, based on people spending up to a third of their pay on mortgage repayments. This compares with affordability levels of just 34pc when property prices peaked in 2007.
Unsurprisingly, affordability levels vary greatly across the country, with homes typically more affordable in the north than in the south, despite the higher income levels of people working in the south. Bradford is Britain's most affordable city, with people on local earnings able to buy 82pc of homes in the area, followed by Hull at 81pc, Stoke-on-Trent at 80 and Birmingham and Coventry, both at 78pc.
Housing in London is the least affordable in the country, with only 32pc of people on local salaries able to afford to buy in the capital. Affordability is also stretched in Southampton, where only 44pc of people can afford to buy, followed by Bristol at 53pc, Norwich at 58pc and Leicester at 59pc.
Nicholas Leeming, commercial director of Zoopla.co.uk, said: "Affordability rates have improved substantially over the past couple of years as a result of lower mortgage rates and falling house prices that have now begun to stabilise."
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...year-high.html
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So they think that current ridiculously low interest rates make overpriced asset more affordable as if it was possible to fix low interest rate forever.
It seems obvious to me that getting into long term debt can't be decided on the basis of it is affordable right now.
Slight increases in average earnings, combined with falling mortgage rates, helped to offset the price rises seen last year, to leave housing affordability at its highest level since 2003, according to property website Zoopla.co.uk.
The group said 58pc of properties in Britain were currently affordable for someone on average local earnings, based on people spending up to a third of their pay on mortgage repayments. This compares with affordability levels of just 34pc when property prices peaked in 2007.
Unsurprisingly, affordability levels vary greatly across the country, with homes typically more affordable in the north than in the south, despite the higher income levels of people working in the south. Bradford is Britain's most affordable city, with people on local earnings able to buy 82pc of homes in the area, followed by Hull at 81pc, Stoke-on-Trent at 80 and Birmingham and Coventry, both at 78pc.
Housing in London is the least affordable in the country, with only 32pc of people on local salaries able to afford to buy in the capital. Affordability is also stretched in Southampton, where only 44pc of people can afford to buy, followed by Bristol at 53pc, Norwich at 58pc and Leicester at 59pc.
Nicholas Leeming, commercial director of Zoopla.co.uk, said: "Affordability rates have improved substantially over the past couple of years as a result of lower mortgage rates and falling house prices that have now begun to stabilise."
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...year-high.html
------
So they think that current ridiculously low interest rates make overpriced asset more affordable as if it was possible to fix low interest rate forever.
It seems obvious to me that getting into long term debt can't be decided on the basis of it is affordable right now.
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