A 14 day notice has been posted on one of the houses in my mum's village. The people are already out, the notice relates to their property for which they have 14 days to arrange removal.
I'm guessing it won't be the only one in the area. The houses along that street are quite modestly priced for the area, and they tend to be people's first, or more usually second, house. My mum was saying that the ex-occupants were a couple who'd bought their council house a few years ago, and had finally sold it and traded up to this house in the village. With food, energy, and petrol prices going up so steeply, I do wonder how many people are going to be in that same situation.
It's desperately sad. We have such a culture now of rising property prices that makes people feel they must take out the largest mortgage they possibly can, and buy/trade up as soon as they can. It's like watching a car crash is slow motion. The economy is cyclic, and sooner or later interest rates are going to go up, house prices are going to fall, and inflation is going to eat into incomes. Currently we have the complete set, and anyone who bought near the top of their capacity to pay will struggle like hell.
Somehow we need house prices to reflect the cost of construction, and be something you buy to live in. Maybe, like council tax, house prices should be banded based on cost to replace i.e. a loss assessors evaluation, and index linked to inflation, so you don't lose out when you buy, but you can't make money by speculating on them either. Getting there however, would be something of a challenge.