Olivera

Where the f*ck did they get that craply dressed lightweight from? Any decent intelligent debater could have destroyed Allsop's arguments and made her look a total fool.

I started on 15k as a graduate in 1999 with a small company that had very little income. Skilled professional graduates starting on that in 2011 is poor indeed. Once you factor in increased housing, food and fuel costs then they must be at least 20 years behind myself and peers. And that's the lucky ones who can get jobs.

I call ******** on a lot of posts on this thread. Flatsharing aged 30, with a 40k salary and a not too frugal lifestyle but 100k in savings? Assuming you save 1k per month that would take 8 years of saving, and its highly unlikely you would have been on the same salary at 22. Someone else is 22 but has 35 grand in savings? I'm highly sceptical that the amounts mentioned on this thread can be saved out of ones own pocket at such a young age. I suspect that a lot of these amounts are partly saved, and partly financed by inheritance, family trusts and the bank of mum and dad. Even so I'd put many of the people on this thread in the top 5% of earners at their age. If even they are not buying, then god help the rest of the populace. A severe crash can only be round the corner.

I actually think house prices will eventually correct themselves, despite the governments and other vested interests best efforts. Unlike the title of this website, I predict no crash, but rather another 10-15 years of no or very low growth, before we return to the historical average.

Guardian article today on 'the lost generation': http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/jan/31/unemployed-graduates-credit-crunch-andrew-hankinson "Our parents had free education, fat pensions, and second homes. We've got student debt and a property ladder with rotten rungs. Thanks very much, says Andrew Hankinson, BSc". Please comment on this article - I have done so under the username 'Outragemified'.

I earn approximately twice the average wage of my region, so not a bad salary at all. I can live very comfortably in a 1 bedroom flat for a long time. However, for me to buy an average sized semi-detached house would stil cost about four times my salary, which I'm just not prepared to do. A lifetime of struggling to pay a huge debt when my industry isn't particularly stable seems a stupid thing to do. So even though I earn a good wage by many people standards even I'm wondering if I should move abroad...