First-time buyers should head for Oldham. Why? The Lancashire town has been found to be the best value in the country for those taking their first step on the property ladder.

Mortgage website realpricecomparison.com looked at the cost of buying property in different towns across the UK and concluded that Oldham was a good bet.

The average monthly mortgage payment in the town is £353 a month compared to the average first-time buyer mortgage of £464 a month.

So, where else is worth buying?

First time homebuyers have been hit badly by the credit crunch, but it looks like things are now improving ever-so-slowly.

One sign of that is there are more mortgage lenders prepared to look at potential buyers who aren't backed by a whopping 25% deposit. During the worst of the financial crisis, some lenders weren't even considering new homebuyers unless they were packing a 40% deposit. When you think the average price of a property during that time was around £160,000, it's no wonder the market was dead.

But now, those people who found the mortgage doors of opportunity shut, because they only had a 10% deposit to put down on a home, are looking at a pretty impressive increase in the number of options open to them.

House prices could soar 20% in the next three years, says the Centre for Economics and Business Research. It now predicts that prices will rise more than 6% this year. An improvement in the availability of mortgages and steadily rising loan approvals prompted the think tank to revise its forecasts.

Just a month ago many experts were forecasting flat house prices this year. But now the Nationwide is predicting a 10% increase, which would be the biggest jump since 2007.

Mortgage borrowers who fall behind with their mortgage payments should still be treated fairly by lenders such as banks and building societies, according to City watchdog the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

It wants to introduce new rules to protect homeowners in this position, although the potential changes are only at proposal stage and mortgage lenders argue that their plans go too far.

Missing mortgage payments does not have to end in repossession, though.

Read on to find out how to ensure you keep hold of your hard-earned home, even if you are struggling to meet your mortgage commitments.

Moving out from home is a vital part of growing up. We flee the nest, find our financial feet, and make our own way in life. Of course, if we do it at a tender age, we're not going to move into a swanky new pad. The chances are we have to give up our comfortable home and parental TLC in favour of cheap, grim, shared accommodation. The sharing of a house with six people and only one shower is an important rite of passage.

Except it looks like the current generation of younger people are giving it a miss. Tempted by the comforts of home, they are just staying put.

So what's going on, and why is it such a disaster?

House prices have been rising for six months, and it looks like nothing's going to stop them now. Even a 'double dip' recession probably won't be enough to send property values back down - or at least not much.

So it's the perfect time for first time buyers to get back into the market. But something's stopping them: they're just too worried.

Homeowners in England and Wales spent 20% less of their take-home pay on monthly mortgage repayments in 2009, according to research from Woolwich, the mortgage arm of Barclays Bank.

In December 2008, homeowners across England and Wales were spending an average £196 of every £1,000 of their post-tax monthly salaries on their mortgages.

But fast forward 12 months and this figure had plunged to £157 in £1,000, meaning a total saving of £110 a month for a typical British household.

There comes a time for every family when they have to face property facts. There's only so long you can share a room with a newborn baby, and when they're old enough to speak you don't want their first words to be 'give me some privacy'. Likewise, you just can't squeeze a family of five into a two bedroomed flat, unless you're a big fan of noisy arguments.

And at that point you have the tricky decision of whether to move or improve.

In the past the numbers always stacked up fairly convincingly in favour of doing the work. If you had the space to extend, or an unused loft or basement, it was far cheaper making an extra room or two than trading up. But with property prices having fallen, how has the calculation changed?

In 2060 houses will be luxurious cupboards with combined showers and toilets, but only kings of small oil states will be able to afford to buy one. At least they will if the trend for the last 50 years continues.

Research from the Halifax shows that in the last half-century our homes have quadrupled in price and shrunk but are a lot nicer than they used to be. We even have indoor toilets and other such untold riches.

In 1959, an average house cost £2,507; which is £43,713 in today's money. Nowadays that might buy you a shed on the less-popular side of Orkney, but not somewhere with running water.

Now the same house will set you back more than £162,000; and at this rate in another five decades it will be £650,000, in today's prices.

Millions of people dream of owning a holiday home. The idea of being able to escape the cold drudgery of life, jump on a plane or a ferry at a moment's notice, and be somewhere comfortable, affordable and sunny in a couple of hours, is too much to resist.

For many of us it's just a pipe dream - something we'll get round to once we have sorted the credit cards and upgraded the car to one that actually works. So for those who achieve their goal, it's a massive financial success that will transform their life.

Or so they think.

But a ruling from the courts yesterday has thrown that into question, as one couple have been ordered to destroy their home by the Cyprus authorities.