But they can spell misery for younger people struggling to raise the cash for a deposit and a mortgage.
South Shropshire District Council has not ignored the problem.
It has come up with a string of schemes designed to make it easier for young people to buy their first home.
But sadly, Lib Dems running the council have failed to deliver real progress despite four years in power. Last year 30 affordable homes were completed in the area - compared with 28 four years earlier.
Their main policy - one half of housing applications have to be for Affordable Housing - has raised the costs of the other half to such a level that building schemes have become uneconomic.
Almost no new housing applications are now being made, other than by housing associations, and some building sites are being left idle.
Shropshire Local Homes, a joint venture between the council, a housing association and a local firm, has also been a flop. Although it has identified 200 plots, the Council's scheme is not realistic so planning applications have not come forward and Shropshire Local Homes has not completed a single house in four years.
The Lib Dems latest brainwave - a £60,000 tax on any new house outside the affordable category - will simply push up prices and make things worse for first-time buyers.
We need new thinking. New planning policies are needed in South Shropshire which will deliver Affordable Housing. Bridgnorth District needs to look at the reality of what has happened next door when it decides its new policy.
