According to the latest comparison figures from Zoopla, it's now cheaper for first time buyers to rent than to buy.
On average monthly rent is now £122 cheaper than paying a mortgage for first time buyers.
But there is considerable variation....
The figures above are based on first time buyers buying an average value home (national average is £263K) with a massive 15% deposit!
And it is still possible to buy for cheaper than renting, but you have to go right out to the sticks to buy - wales or the far north, so cold and/ or wet!
It's getting harder to accumulate wealth...
So I guess this means it is now harder than ever for the young to accumulate wealth, due primarily to the cost of borrowing going up in the form of higher interest rates, now over 6.5% for mortgages.
This isn't even that high, historically, still manageable I guess, but an almost £40K deposit is astronomical and we're looking at a couple saving for most of their 20s and into their 30s to accumulate such a sum, and then they have to pay relatively more than the place they had presumably been renting before buying.
And now add on the fact that it's economically rational to rent in the short term.
But taken longer term that is, of course, a fallacy, because if you rent ALL of that money is going to someone else, at least with a mortgage some of it is going towards your own wealth accumulation.
This is just another example of how much more difficult it is for younger people... higher borrowing costs simply means an even longer struggle to get on that property ladder.
Of course in the medium to long term you'd expect house prices to come down as with current prices buying is simply out reach of many first time buyers, and some who could buy may well see other investments as more lucrative than buying a house!
So I don't see this situation lasting forever, the market will balance things out eventually.
Probably in the form of rents going up more, I don't see the cost of borrowing coming down that fast!