First-time buyers are rarer than ever despite falling house prices | Money | The Guardian

First-time buyers are rarer than ever despite falling house prices | Money | The Guardian

Homes bought by first-time buyers have reached their most affordable level since 2003 – but the number of such buyers has hit a record low, Halifax has found.

Houses bought by first-time buyers in November were found to be priced at "affordable" levels in 44% of local authority districts in the UK, the highest proportion for eight years, the First-Time Buyer Review found. That compared to a figure of just 5% at the peak of the property market in 2007.

This year, the number of young adults entering the property market slumped to the lowest since records began, the survey found, but Halifax predicted that the first-time buyer might – just might – make a comeback in 2012.

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" Oxford is the second least affordable location in the UK, with typical prices in the university city 7.75 times average local incomes."