According to a new survey, Brits will live in 11 different homes over their lifetime – but settle a precise number of miles from where they grew up. That means it's possible to work out exactly where your forever home will be.
A study of 2,000 homeowners of all ages found they bought their first home at an average age of 27. And that first home would most likely be a two-bed terraced property worth an average of £113,000.
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But the most fascinating fact was that the house we tend up settling down in is 37 miles from our childhood residence. That means it's possible to plot exactly where we will settle for good.
Where is my forever home?
Depending on what stationary you have to hand, it's easy to work out. Take a map, and draw a ruler line from where you lived as a child (location A) to 37 miles out (location B) playing close attention to scale, obviously! Next, take a compass and pin it into location A, and set your pencil to location B. Then draw a circle. Anywhere on the diameter of the circle could be the site of your forever home.
The survey was commissioned by Slam Ai Club (opens in new tab), a new property website powered by artificial intelligence. 'Gone are the days of living in the same home you buy as a young adult,' says its founder Dr David Surkov. 'Now people are moving multiple times.But despite this, it looks like we never stray too far from our childhood home with many still living just a stone’s throw away from where they grew up.'
Digging into the statistics, it seems a typical homeowner settles down to start a family in a £169,000 three-bed semi. Then as they approach their fifties, they tend to downsize to a two-bed property. But more than half (51 per cent) of those questioned, via OnePoll, have no plans to move again.
When will I own my first home?
The average adult tends to move out at 21 years old, and into rented accommodation. You're destined to rent two properties before getting onto the housing ladder. At which point you're likely to be 27, and live an average of 29 miles away from mum and dad. One in ten will stay within 10 miles of the family home.
People tend to up sticks again at 33 years old, either to upgrade for a better quality of life (22 per cent) or to get a property suitable for raising a family (21 per cent).
17 per cent will move because of their job, and 10 per cent will move because a relationship has ended.
Related: House prices are at a record high, but Rightmove has a warning for sellers...
I've done the maths and it seems there is a lot of truth in these numbers. I bought my own first home at 27 – although sadly, I'm more than 100 miles away from my poor mum and our childhood home. But plenty of our friends do live within the 37-mile radius. Do you?
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