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The price of the average UK home has increased almost twice as much as the wages of the average UK worker over the past fifty years.
Given that people use money to buy houses, this is a problem.
Unfortunately, because the numbers involved are so large, it's not that easy to mentally scale up exactly how significant the difference is.
An easier way to think about this is to look at how affordable everyday food items would be if prices had also risen at the same rate as houses.
The average house cost £4,200 in 1971. At the start of 2021, the price was 58 times higher - almost £249,000.
Now take a pint of milk, for example, which you can buy for 40p today. If this also cost 58 times more than it did fifty years ago (5p), it would set you back £2.90.
Or a dozen eggs. In 2021, this cost around £1.90, compared to 23p in 1971. A box of eggs would be £13.40 if prices had risen as quickly as houses over this period.
At these prices, it would suddenly be much more difficult to buy eggs. It's the same with house prices, except the scales are so much higher.
However, it must be noted that despite the rise in house prices over the past 50 years, the cost of food has actually become more affordable with average wages rising quicker than these products. This means in real terms although a house was more attainable in the past, everyday goods would have been more expensive.
It's been suggested that if young people gave up "luxuries" like Netflix and gym membership, they would be able to put aside enough for a deposit.
But, you'd have to go 450 years without Netflix before you'd save enough for the average deposit, which was almost £54,000 last year.
In fact, dropping Netflix today would make as much impact on your ability to buy a house as deciding to have nine fewer eggs a month would have done in years gone by.
Based on these numbers, it's easy to see why home ownership - which was an achievable goal for the average Brit fifty years ago - is increasingly unrealistic for young people today.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.