Housing prices for the new generation, does money really buy happiness?
Money Makes the world go round, so to say. I am a University student researching some key questions to do with money and how it affects different people. In this article I will be discussing topics like, how the house prices have differed in the last 10 years with the effects. And the key question, 'does money buy happiness?'
The change in Housing prices in the last decade
Firstly, it is safe to say the house prices have seen a significant increase over the last ten years. Thus having a major negative effect on the younger generation wanting to buy a house as a first time buyer. Imagine being freshly out of university at the age of 21 or even up to the age of 30 and wanting to buy a house, with a wage of £18,000 to £25,000 it is near impossible.
On average the price of a house in the UK has risen from £222,989 to £341,019 a staggering increase of £118,030 or 53% increase. So, let's say the average price of a house for the end of 2022 to the start of 2023 is £296,000, with a 5% deposit being £14,800 with no outstanding debts and using the standard multiple of 4.5 times your salary you would have to be earning around £62,000 per year. Which is nearly impossible to achieve in a graduate role in any organisation.
Moving on to the average house price ten years ago, 2012. This figure was at £167,000 in the UK, a considerable decrease and although the average UK salary was lower it was still much easier for people, especially younger people, to buy a house.
Furthermore, looking at the house price to wage comparison in 2012 as said, the average house price was £167,000 whereas the average wage was £26,500. And in 2022, ten years later the average house price was £274,000 whereas the average wage was only £31,500.
From 2012, the average UK house price has raised 60% whereas, comparatively the average salary has only risen by 19%, not equal at all. In my opinion it is harder for the people of the UK to buy a house by a considerable amount, especially as only 10% of the UK's population earn over £33,000.
Overall, in the UK, the house prices have risen a much more severe rate than wage have, making it much harder for people on the average salary to buy such houses, and especially for the graduate level workers that have to resort to renting, which is only seen as short-term. And with a growing rate of house prices, in my opinion, the government have to put in more schemes to aid the people who need it.
Does money buy happiness?
In the section of the article, i will be discussing if money is the key to being happy, or the complete opposite. It's said that with more money comes more problems but can money solve any of them? Who knows
The notion that money can buy your happiness is, in my opinion, very subjective and almost psychological. After research i have found that it is almost the other way around, people with less money are often more content in life.
As always there are two sides to the story yes or no.
In the opinion that money does buy happiness, the argument can be made that you cannot get anywhere without it, on a basic level there is a need to have money to eat, sleep and function in day to day life. Let's say you are middle class, and have enough money to live a sound life where you can buy things whenever you need, then it could be seen that people are more than happy if they can afford to live.
In another light, if you are a part of the 0.1% of the top earning people, life is seen to be enjoyable, however going back to the saying 'with more money comes more problems' it can be apparent that there could be more things to worry about for example, people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos need to be very cautious online with what they say and who they say it to.
Contrastingly, on the other side there is the fact that the situation of a person comes into play. Say the person is alone with no family or friends but with all the money in the world, then they may be unhappy even with money and what money can buy. However, if a person has family and friends to enjoy money with, generally, they are likely to be happier.
Overall, money can and cannot buy happiness, it really depends on the situation and how a person is doing psychologically. Yes, money can buy nice things and nice experiences, however you do not need money to be happy and it solely depends on the person's situation.