House prices over the years

[AndyBoyce]

I recently visited Dame Agatha Christie's second house, Greenway, Nr. Dartmouth wich she bought in 1938 for �6,000. Can anyone put this figure into perspective?

[geofbob]

The short answer is that in 1938 �6,000 was a lot of money. For example, it was about 10 times the cost of an average house (eg a suburban semi); so in today's terms it would be the equivalent of buying a house costing over a million pounds. Another way of looking at it is in terms of 1938 average earnings, which were �3 or �4 a week (sorry, but I can't find a precise figure), so the cost of AC's house equalled about 35 years wages, which today would be about three-quarters of a million pounds.