[user104658]

My parents bought the house I spent my teens in in 1996 for 70k, divorced and sold it in 2004 for 120k (split the money between them and both blew the lot, sigh), and it's now valued at well over 200k.

That was a detached house with three large double bedrooms, but that's in a small village in Scotland. House prices have absolutely soared in the last two decades, anyone who bought their first home pre-1995ish has absolutely no idea what getting on the housing ladder looks like these days.

Around here its not quite so bad for singles or young couples - you can grab a nice enough flat for around the 50 - 60k range - but nothing suitable for a family. If you want a house, even a two-bed semi detached or terraced, you're into the 100k+ bracket. For what I would call a realistically sized family home (3 bed semi detached house) you're pretty much out of luck if you can't stretch to £150k.