Two numbers I would like to see

[andrewducker]

1) Average age of first-time home buyers as a graph covering the last 50 years.
2) Average monthly mortgage repayment over a similar time period - adjusted for inflation.  Because this would adjust (somewhat) for house prices going up while interest rates are low.

Between them these would tell us something about the affordability of housing over a long period.

Comments

[pete stevens (from livejournal.com)]

I was a first time buyer in 2001. I am a first time buyer again this year.

This is because first time buyer means someone buying a house who doesn't have a house to sell as part of a transaction. Should you sell your house and move into a rented house, then buy a house you become a first time buyer, you get a better price on the sale because there's no chain, and a better price on the purchase because there is no chain there either.

[andrewducker]

Yup - there was a link somewhere that said that about 10% of first time buyers weren't buying for the first time.

But so long as we're comparing like for like it's still useful.