Halifax: Housing affordability got better in 2008

Date:Friday 2nd January 2009
Author: Rachel Fletcher

First-time buyers were especially affected by improved housing affordability in 2008, according to new research by Halifax.

The study found that local authorities with housing classed as affordable for first-time buyers more than tripled in the last year, going from four per cent in 2007 to 14 per cent in 2008.

Scotland and Yorkshire and the Humber were found to have the most affordable homes, with prices suiting the average income for 67 per cent and 40 per cent of local authorities respectively.

Halifax chief economist, Martin Ellis, said that the organisation expected the improvement in housing affordability to carry on in the coming year.

The definition of an affordable local authority is if a first-time buyer's average price of a house is less than what an averagely-paid person in the area could afford.

According to Halifax's House Price Index for October 2008, house prices fell by 2.2 per cent in that month.

At the time, Halifax noted that the affordability of housing was getting better and predicted this improvement to carry on.