I thought the Perth area was doing well, page-279

Yes you have brought up a very pertinent subject. I was first married so young-18!
Our idea was to rent, but we saved a bit and bought a total dump, 1 bed ground floor Victorian maisonette just around the corner from St Georges Hospital in South London.
We had a car accident a few weeks before our wedding so I was unable to work. But we scrimped and scraped. Every single piece of furniture apart from our bed, which was a wedding present was secondhand.
We had great fun, renovating it on the cheap. We were so skint that we could not afford polyfilla and made our own paper machier to fill in the gaping holes everywhere.
That was also in the 70's. In the days you only ate out on special occasions like birthdays.
I get cross when I hear young people say "Baby boomers had it so easy".
Then a year later we moved to a larger dump and a few more.
Gradually built up our equity until we had a lovely home.
Things are different today, we drove an old bomb around until it literally fell to pieces. But we still had fun.
So very different now. Sorry for ranting. Joannie.