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

[erindubitably.livejournal.com]

Might this article be relevant to your interests?

(Doesn't answer all your questions, but has a bit of info and might have links to more answers)

[andrewducker]

That is actually very useful.

"Affordability for potential first-time buyers has improved substantially over the past two years and mortgage payments in relation to earnings are currently significantly below the average during the past 25 years," said Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax.
is particularly interesting, because it contradicts what marrog was saying about housing being less affordable than it used to be.