From This is Money:
Their ownership hopes are being scuppered by fierce competition for homes, nervous lenders and panicking property valuers.
Estate agents in some areas report bidding wars between first-time buyers and back-to-back appointments for viewings ? leading to many meeting their asking price for the first time since 2007.
In some areas, specific terrace homes are selling for more than they fetched two years ago. This, despite average prices having dropped by more than 20% in some parts of the country.
Meanwhile, figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show that first-time buyers are stumping up a typical deposit of £31,875, more than double the £13,194 in September 2007.
Even when buyers have offers accepted, they find that stubborn banks and building societies refuse to lend. Often this is because surveyors are valuing properties below their sale price.
Now CML economists say the average age of a first-time buyer who receives no help from their parents is 37, compar…
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