Eat avocados, you might as well
I’ll comment on the Spring statement tomorrow, but it is enough to say now that the Chancellor did nothing for millions of the poorest but stored up money for a pre-election tax cut, in the middle of a crisis that is shameless.
What also slipped out during the Spring Statement yesterday was the latest data on house price affordability by the ONS. Sobering doesn’t do it justice.
To quote “During 2021 housing became less affordable in 300 out of 331 local authority areas across England and Wales as house prices increased faster than earnings.”
And “In England in 2021, full-time employees could typically expect to spend around 9.1 times their workplace-based annual earnings on purchasing a home; this is an increase since 2020, when it was 7.9 times. “
Thus in one year the price of housing rose by more than a years salary. For those patronising property experts and home educated savings gurus out there, that means if you had lived on air for the last year your dream of owning a property would be further away than it was when you started.
For those pensioners sitting on millions in property wealth who tell you not to get breakfast at Greggs or eat avocados, but to save hard like they did to get on the property ladder; these are the figures that expose their ignorance.
They bought when house price multiples were 2 or 3 times earnings. So did I, it was hard work but saving a deposit at 9 times earnings is impossible.
You cannot save that kind of money no matter what, so you may as well have avocado on toast for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Oh and rich parents, yes I forgot have rich parents, it is the best economic policy by far.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.