Mortgages
Is It a Good Time To Buy a House?
Is it a good time to buy a house? We look at the factors that really matter — affordability, mortgage rates, how long you plan to stay, and the risks to weigh up — rather than trying to time the market.
Free tool
What did the average house cost the year you were born?
Pick your birth year and see the average UK home price then versus now. The twist: we adjust for inflation, so you get the honest real-terms rise, not the scary headline multiple.
I was born in
In 1990, the average UK home cost
£59,587
Average home today£274,930early 2026
On paper that’s4.6× morebefore adjusting for inflation
That price in today’s money£151,474what £59,587 in 1990 is worth now
Real rise since 1990+82%the honest, inflation-adjusted figure
Houses look 4.6× more expensive than in 1990, but a lot of that is just inflation, everything costs more now. Strip that out and homes have risen about 82% in real terms. That real gap, not the scary headline multiple, is what has made getting on the ladder genuinely harder.
Prices: Nationwide House Price Index (average UK house price, early 2026 for “today”). Inflation adjusted using ONS Consumer Prices Index. A light-hearted look at public data, not a valuation. See the inflation calculator and house prices by area.
The number that actually matters
“Houses cost 60 times more than they did in the 60s!” makes a great headline, and it is technically true. But it is close to meaningless, because a pound in 1965 bought far more than a pound today. Wages, a pint, a car, everything carried a smaller price tag.
The figure worth looking at is the real-terms rise, the birth-year price expressed in today’s money, compared with what an average home costs now. That is the gap this tool puts front and centre, and it is still a big one: homes have become genuinely more expensive relative to everything else, which is exactly why saving a deposit takes so much longer than it did for your parents.
See it for your own situation
Curious how your own home fits the picture? The house value calculator estimates what your place is worth today, and pay versus house prices shows how far the average salary now stretches compared with decades past.
Frequently asked questions
What was the average UK house price the year I was born?
Pick your birth year in the tool above and it shows the average UK house price that year from the Nationwide House Price Index, which runs back to 1952. For example, the average home cost around £1,891 in 1952, £4,378 in 1970, £59,587 in 1990 and about £217,911 in 2020.
Why show the price 'in today's money'?
Because the headline figure is misleading on its own. A house that cost £4,000 in 1970 sounds tiny, but £4,000 went a very long way back then. Adjusting for inflation shows what that price is worth in today's money, so you can see how much homes have really risen once you strip out the fact that everything costs more now.
Have houses really got more expensive, or is it just inflation?
Both, but mostly the former. Even after adjusting for inflation, average UK house prices have risen substantially in real terms since the mid-20th century, especially from the late 1990s onwards. The real-terms rise, not the raw multiple, is why deposits and mortgages swallow a far bigger share of income than they did for previous generations.
Where does the data come from?
House prices come from the Nationwide House Price Index, the longest-running UK measure, going back to 1952. The inflation adjustment uses the Office for National Statistics Consumer Prices Index. It is a light-hearted illustration built on public data, not a property valuation.
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