Yes. Bigger, better insulated, better heated. It helped that both my wife and I were working full time, whereas my mother mostly didn't work while bringing us up. I don't think my 30 yo daughter will be able to say the same, even if we copped it now and she inherited this one.
Yes, but I'm substantially better off then my parents ever were due to a thing that used to be called "social mobility"
I grew up in a 3 bed semi-detached council house in a pretty rough part of North Ayrshire. My parents never owned the house.
My Dad had a skilled trade (mechanical fitter) but was in and out of work. My Mum left school at 16 and had various retail jobs. I think they looked at "Right to Buy" but never did.
They divorced when I was in my early 20's and at University. Dad stayed in the council house and my Mum managed to buy a tiny flat for about £15k back in 2000.
I bought my first house in 2007 when I was 30, a two bed terrace on the outskirts of Glasgow, I bought it with my soon to be wife. We moved to a bigger 4 bed detached in a newish estate not far from our first house 7 years later. We kept the first house and my Mum now lives in it.
Unlike my parents we are both graduates, so rather than getting lucky with the low property prices I guess we got lucky with education and opportunity. I worry that a similar leap in living standards is probably never going to be seen by my daughter though.
My mum grew up in a council house in Airdrie, my dad a tenement in Glasgow. They worked hard and brought me up in a 3 bed detached they bought on 1971. I have had a similar house myself the last 24 years here in Ireland after buying our 2 bed flat in Edinburgh in our mid 20s back in the mid 90s.Dont fancy my kids chances of buying an Edinburgh flat in their 20s.
Yes, but similar to @richmtb except my folks did own their own house.
Bit of a weird one because my parents never had a mortgage as my Dad's Dad passed when he was young and left enough cash for my parents to buy a house outright. I suspect that wasn't a great long term move for my inheritance 🙂
Social as well as geographical mobility has worked well for me - grew up in a nice ish part of Bolton (yes they do exist) but I've spent all my working life in Scotland.
We do, just about.
My parents still live in the home they brought us up in which they bought for 20k back in 1980, 70's build, 4 bed detached in a relatively nice area, suburbs, 1700sqft.
My mum was a stay at home mum, my dad was a contractor in oil and gas as an instrument design technician and we had a pretty good upbringing, I remember seeing one of his payslips in 2007 when he was based up in Aberdeen and it was circa 5k a month and supported all 5 of us both parents myself and two sisters.
For comparison me and my wife live in a 70's build, 4 bed detached, just over 2000sqft in a sometimes described as "up & coming" yorkshire village with the beach just over 250m from my front door. We paid 430k and had to do a load of renovations and TLC. Next door sold late last year for 470k and there is one up for sale over the road about 2400sqft for 650k.
My wifes university educated and in the NHS on band 8d, I work in infosec and tech in the fintech sector with no uni education, we bring in together substantially more than what my dad earned back then, and we have no kids to pay for either.
We definitely do. We were lucky enough to be the first people (no student loans) in either of mine or MrsG family to go to Uni and we’ve had good careers.
Still it’s more about being happy where you are than size of house. How many of us have know people with terrible neighbours or problems with their houses/flats etc..
My mum grew up in a council house in Airdrie, my dad a tenement in Glasgow. They worked hard and brought me up in a 3 bed detached they bought on 1971. I have had a similar house myself the last 24 years here in Ireland after buying our 2 bed flat in Edinburgh in our mid 20s back in the mid 90s.Dont fancy my kids chances of buying an Edinburgh flat in their 20s.
My son and his Mrs live in Edinburgh both teachers, he's a head of department they're only just able to afford a doer up in an okayish area
Not even close. 3 bed ‘90’s semi that’ll be mortgaged until I retire vs 4 bed executive detached on a small exclusive development in the most expensive part of town. If I was mortgage free the value of my house wouldn’t even be enough to buy my two brothers out!
Yes. I live in a nice detached that backs directly on to the South Downs. They live in a terrace in an estuarinal essex/greater London hell hole suburb. Theirs is quite possibly worth more though, because it's in a Greater London hell hole suburb.
My parents lived in a three bedroom suburban semi with a large garden which was worth less (probably 2-300k less) than our two bed Victorian terrace with a small backyard three miles from them in SW London, due to location. Not sure which is the nicer of the two; I have no need for three bedrooms or a large garden and liked being in town.
Currently we're living in a two bedroom former farm house in Ireland with two acres of land which cost less than a one bed flat in London and is nicer than my parents house or our place in London.
For me, yes and no. My parents house is probably larger than ours in terms of floor area, but its a terrace that just happens to go a long way back. Ours is a semi-d in a nicer area with off street parking. Now worth about twice my parents place, and 30% more than we bought it for 15 years ago. My parents paid £7k in the early 70s (having been turned down for a mortage on a place twice the size and half the price a few months earlier when inflation was very volatile). Now around 30-35x that...
My other half was brought up in a huge rambling 15th century onwards farmhouse on a big plot of land, outbuildings etc, which her dad ran his company from for many years. We both do OK, no kids etc, but there's no WAY we could afford to run that place! Where we currently live is definitely a downgrade for her, although I think we both agree that our location is much better.
Certainly not the house before their OAP bungalow. It was a lovely 3 bed semi council house with a massive garden. Sadly they were too timid to buy it when the opportunity arose.
My toilet isn't out in the porch though.
For us yes, but not by a massive margin.
Parents small 3 bed in an OK but not posh bit of Leeds, but amazing size garden.
Us… well we never went for a trophy home but have a nicer, bigger 3 bed semi in a nice bit of Leeds.
Have always seen a house as somewhere to live in rather than a trophy, growing up and helping my dad as he visited houses to do work I always saw that the happiest people were not the ones with 5 bed and stretched to the limit, bur with OK houses in OK areas. My dad used to call those in the big houses baked bean familys…. Nice car, nice house but couldn’t afford more than baked beans in the pantry.
As a result have always kept house costs to well within means.
In reality no. I grew up on the Chilterns and because it's the South even though my house is bigger my childhood house is worth more. Looking at sold prices the old 4 bed (3 really) family home sold for 450k ten years ago. Our 5 bed (4 really) is probably worth 400k tops today.
But I'm an easy ride into the Peak District so that's a win.
Way better in every single respect. But then my mom refused to work, lived in a council house in a not nice part of Wolves, and spent her whole life on single parent benefits enjoying a drink or two. So any kind of house would have been better.
5 bed Victorian terraced townhouse* vs
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They didn't have the mortgage i do though......
*downsized since then but peak was....
Nicer than their first house, but probably not nicer than Mum's current one - hers is bigger, bigger garden too, but a semi. Ours is a small detached. However, we could easily afford to move to somewhere much bigger and nicer, but no pressing reason to and it's really really hard to find somewhere that meets all we want within likely budget.
Nope, the typical council built (now housing association owned) 1980’s 1bedroom semi detached bungalow has been my home for 30 odd years, parents (now just 69yr old mum, dad died) own their home in town but growing up in 70s/80’s we lived in 10+ cottage’s/caravans/mobile homes in Argyll (Achnamara/crinan/ardrishaig/dalavich) till we finally moved back in 1988 down to kirkcudbright (where I was born and spent first 6 years of my life) where they bought their first house and where mum still lives
edit - damn iPhone editing with fat numb fingers
Yes. No ifs, not buts, just yes and that’s on both sides of the family.
We also have more kids and less support, but by golly have we had to work for it over the past 15y. 12y without a holiday, at one point crippling debt, massive work hours, aggressive career moves and more compromises than the European Commission.
It’s sill not amazing by many standards, but it’s hard to equate with where I come from.
No. Folks in a large 4 bed bungalow on one of the poshest streets in the area. Me, three bed semi, normal street. We haven't moved as we like the house. Mum and dad only moved once. Our house is similar to their first house.
Dad also retired at 55, I'm 56. Going to do a few more years, but not much after 62.
My parents are still living in the semi-detached bungalow on the south side of Glasgow they bought in 1971.
Up until 6 years ago was living in a detached Edwardian 4 bed house in Fleet, Hampshire and now living in a 2-bed house in Tobermory.
Yes. Brough up in a then brand new 1970’s three bed BOVIS home in south Devon. Live in a four bedroom victorian house in a silly expensive area with the King as my neighbour. If/when I move back, it will be to a nicer house in Devon. And another house in another country. The house price differential is enormous.
the same really, but i own my 3 bed semi.
my mum was a single parent, and we always lived in a 3 bed semi council house.
on a side note, never understood people wanting big flash houses.
you can only shit in one loo.
got a couple of mates my age who have recently moved into 4 bed semi's with big mortgages and no kids at home.
i find this strange.
I'm going to discount the married quarters from my younger years, they were mostly in Germany and bloody massive but not my parents.
The house they brought me up in that they bought when my father left the Army was small 3 bed, the sort were the third bedroom was a cupboard.
My home is a simple 1950's 3 bed semi, perfect size for the two of us and the hound, a little larger, much cleaner and well looked after.
The added plus is there's no violence or conflict. The foster home I spent the latter part of my teens in was massive, I could never afford one of that size, I'd love to be able to own that home.
No but then we chose to shun the rat race and live in a van.
However, before jumping ship we were renting and unless either of our parents died early leaving us a chunk of inheritance we would be destined to rent if we wanted to stay near to where we were. That's despite each earning above the (German) national average.
Do I resent living in a van? No.
Was back in the UK last month due to the old man's I'll health. There's no way I would want the house he has. Despite its large garden it's in the middle of beige suburbia.
Think it will have to be something special (be that house/land or a life changing injury/ailment) that pushes us back to a sedentary lifestyle surrounded by bricks.
My parents had a 3 bed terrace with a small-ish garden, no garage.
I've got a 3 bedroom terraced of about the same size, with no garden and a reserved parking spot.
So, broadly equivalent.
But my house is "worth" just short of 3 times what my parents house is/was worth because I live in a much nicer place on earth (though it is a stupidly expensive part of the world to live)....
Same - I bought their house while I was still living in it. 3-bed semi ex-council house. I’d never have been able to afford a house otherwise; Chippenham is an expensive area, just because of its location, on the A350, A4, A420, A429, the main London-Bristol railway line, and the M4 is above 3miles north.
PS, there is no inheritance money or anything on my side. My slightly younger sister never had a mortgage as her husband's mum died soon after they were married, so they got a nice 4 bed detached. My other two siblings are in nice big 4 bed detatched with mortgages that will take them to retirement.
My mortgage was gone before I was 50, and we manage on just my salary now. MrsF sort of retired at 53, but hasn't taken any money out of her pension. We manage OK. What's the point of a flash house sometimes.
Yes for both me and my wife though its quite a bit closer for my wife's parents house. A uni education, good job, working hard and also some luck and fortunate timing means that our house is bigger, nicer and more expensive by a good way from what my parents had. They however afforded that on my dad working full time and my mum part time at most which would not be an option for us.
I fear that my kids will struggle to match our mobility and plan to downsize in order to help them when that is needed.
For most of our adult life, we were in a very similar house...a mid terraced 3 bed...ours in a proper village, my parents in what was a village in 1960 when they paid £1600 for it...then they filled all the gaps so it became a sort of village suburb of the nearby town. It sold in 2017 for £170k so about 105x what they paid...shame that the vast majority of their lifetime finances ended up paying for 5 yrs care...such is life. Were now in a far bigger detached house in the country...probably twice as big...however, it is in SW France so is worth about £4.50. About to move back to the UK and will have a similar sized (area) house as my parents and we had previously...but in a different location and it's detached and better designed (It won't be better built than the 1880s-1910s stone terraced properties I previously lived in.)
No for me
Yes for my wife
Dad had a high paying job. His pension is way more salary. He has a 4 bed detached.
We have a weird semi. 3 bed semi with an extra room. Could be an office or bedroom.
But I’ve never been bothered by ever we live and never aspired to more. It’s in a small town we love. The kids had bedroom each plus space to escape to. It needs smartening up inside. But that’s our lack of effort not funds
Yes, in my opinion, but my parents didn't have the degree or opportunities I've had.
I grew up in a flat above a shop in Watford, no garden, rented and not in any way luxurious. They later bought a 3 bed end of terrace in Watford, but never really paid off much of it before splitting up and selling it.
I own a 2 bed semi in a village out of Cambridge, has a garage and garden and I like it, although I need to spend some more money on updating it really.
I've just moved to a house that is better than I ever expected to own.
It's still worth 30% less than the last two homes I grew up in, and I would never have seen able to own such a costly house.
My parents are still living in the semi-detached bungalow on the south side of Glasgow they bought in 1971.
Up until 6 years ago was living in a detached Edwardian 4 bed house in Fleet, Hampshire and now living in a 2-bed house in Tobermory.
The financial value of your home is only part of the true value IMO.
I'm planning on staying in our house for a decade or so, but look to move to somewhere with more 'natural and community" value to retire.
My parents are still living in the semi-detached bungalow on the south side of Glasgow they bought in 1971.
Up until 6 years ago was living in a detached Edwardian 4 bed house in Fleet, Hampshire and now living in a 2-bed house in Tobermory.
The financial value of your home is only part of the true value IMO.
I'm planning on staying in our house for a decade or so, but look to move to somewhere with more 'natural and community" value to retire.
Probably on a par with my parents house however the key difference is my parents bought their house in 1989 for about 2x my dad's salary whereas I bought mine in 2020 for 5x my salary, and from memory by 1995 my dad was earning what I'm earning now in 2026, and when you adjust that for inflation he was earning significantly more. Their mortgage was also paid off way before the end of the planned 25 years
Grew up in a spacious three bed bungalow with large front and rear gardens, good sized garage with workshop/utility space and a driveway with an extra parking space (/turning circle). Views of the coast and distant hills/mountains.
Current house is an end terrace with the sort of on-street parking that can turn into convert warfare waged against your neighbours and visitors to the local community centre.
Value wise, the current house wins by a chunk as it's on the West side of Sheffield, rather than an ex-mining village in Non-Lake District Cumbria.
I have used this example before but:
I bought my flat in 1992. 2.5 x salary. Its now worth 9x the current salary for the same job. I have improved it and the area has gentrified but even so it shows how property inflation has outstripped earnings. There is nothing that I could buy in Edinburgh now for 2.5 times a band 6 nurses salary
I had to leave the country to leapfrog them. Grew up in a 4 bed detached (Barratt house on one of the biggest estates in Europe at the time). Absolutely awful place to live, no facilities worth speaking of, no shops, crap schools, lots of hidden abuse in families (that i didn't find out about until my 20's!).
Come the point i left the country, my ex and i had an inflation adjusted combined salary about 20% more than my parents ever earned when they were married, probably more than they *ever* earned. Period.
Houses we were looking at locally were either 7-8 times combined salary and really only needed decorating, or 5-6 times and needed completely gutting. They were houses to bring a family up in (3-4 bed semi or detached, mostly in village/outskirts of town).
Place we ended up with is massive, 4/5 bed. Own grounds, no real neighbours (none we could hear anyway!). Cost us about 2x take home.
Yes.
Yes again, just to meet the minimum character limit for a post.
Ignore.
Grew up In pub now live in 3 bed semi…. So probably not in most people’s eyes!
Had forgotten, but thanks to this thread... No idea why, but when I was about 5 or 6 my mom moved the three of us into my uncles barn, near Weymouth, for a year in the late 60's, early 70's. It was literally a barn on his derelict farm. No facilities at all inside. Us kids had a great time of it. Oddly enough I never met my uncle, and, as he died 30 years ago, never will. The school was odd. Just one room for all years, and a pervy doctor who made us run around naked for medical checks.
