The Office of National Statistics (ONS) have just released their latest figures regarding housing affordability ratios. These are calculated by dividing house prices by gross annual residence-based earnings and can be used to track how affordable average homes are across Oxfordshire.
On average, working people could expect to pay around 7.6 times their annual earnings on purchasing a home in England and Wales in 2016, up from 3.6 times earnings in 1997.
Unsurprisingly, Oxford City is the least affordable area in the county (at 12.6 times earnings), but South Oxfordshire has leapt up the rankings into second place whilst Cherwell, VOWH and West Oxfordshire are all between 9.3 and 9.7
According to Land Registry figures, the average property price in West Oxfordshire is now £307,599 which is +7% over 1 year and +29% over 5 years.
How does this stack up with the rest of the Country? The most affordable local authority in 2016 was Copeland, with house prices being on average 2.8 times greater than annual earnings, whereas Kensington and Chelsea was the least affordable with house prices being 38.5 times greater than annual earnings.