One of the recurring themes in news media about real estate affordability is the claim that today’s young buyers have it a lot harder than their parents did when they were buying their first home, perhaps a quarter of a century ago.

But, like so many things espoused in mainstream media about residential property, it really isn’t true – not when you look fully at all the factors in play and crunch the numbers.

Recent research - which used data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Reserve Bank of Australia - found that Millennials actually have it easier than did Baby Boomers, when it comes to the portion of weekly income spent on the monthly mortgage.

And, as one of those Baby Boomers buying my first property back in the late 1980s, I can testify to how hard it was – primarily because interest rates were so incredibly high and there were considerably fewer loan options.

And that really is the crucial difference.