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Median is a type of average, tbh both mean and median wages are plenty in most developed countries - if you actually get that much. Which half or more than half of people don't get, depending on which one you are using.
Not sure I agree, given how disproportionate housing costs are in many first world countries.
As an example, my brother makes well above the median income in the UK, but lives in an old camper van during weekdays because he can't afford rent in the area where he works.
I also live in the UK and bought a house on minimum wage. Cheaper part of the south east but still costs a bit more than where I grew up in the south west.
How on earth did you get a deposit while on minimum wage?
When minimum wage came in in the UK my legit income more than doubled, but was still only enough to cover food, a decent 125 scooter, and about half my rent. To make up the rent I depended on other forms of income.
And housing has gone up faster than minimum wage.
Renting a bedroom, after rent I didn't really spend much else, food was only like £10-15 a week, was saving £5-10k a year.
So, it only took you 10 - 20 years of having no life to get a deposit together?
In my darkest days I was spending about £12 on food per week in total, but that was in the 90s
20 years of that would pretty much buy an entire house, not just a deposit. Not sure how it's having no life either.
5x20=100
The most modest house I could find last time I looked (about 8 years ago) was £200k and they wanted a deposit of £80k because my income was only the national average.
No life, because if you were saving £10k a year on minimum wage then at the current rate you'd have about £10k/year after tax to cover all bills ... remove car & insurance (or public transport costs), a single rented room including utilities at the normal rate of about £500/month, plus tax etc, and you wouldn't have much money left over.
Cars cost a shitload, so I didn't get one and just walk/cycled to work. Spent that money on rounds at spoons instead.
Also plenty of flats for less if you are buying on your own. Expecting an entire house on your own is probably a bit much for most people.
That's fair, for most of my life I've had to commute further than public transport could take me ... and now you come to mention it, I did once buy a flat for £20K (though it needed everything)
£20k sounds like a long time ago or a complete dump. But a bit more can get something alright. Depends what you want to spend of course.
I either moved to walking distance of work or only looked for jobs I could walk/cycle to.
I didn't have the option of moving or being selective about jobs.
It was a complete dump. A little old lady had died there, she was a chain smoker and nothing had been cleaned or fixed in the previous 30 or so years.
Sounds not too far off the house we got tbh. Though no obvious signs of smoking, just a musty damp smell. Replacing the 4 layers of wallpaper was fun and then plastering the patches where the plaster just about fell off the wall.
Well, I'm glad you managed to find a place, and that you've got the necessary wits about you to make it a nice home :-)
Necessary wits being hey let's remove the peeling wallpaper and paint this room!
Followed by - oh shit why are bits of wall coming off with it. Why is the bare block behind visible. YouTube, how do I plaster a wall?
Indeed. I once dated a girl who left dead flies on the windowsills as a deterrent to the other flies, but didn't think to clean out the moody fruit in her kitchen.
She'd been in foster care from the age of 12, and had zero preparation for life.