both Southend lines go directly into hubs for finance, so lots of local commuters have made very decent money in work, added to which you’ve got plenty of escapees from London wanting more space to raise their kids. (Bless them, lots of London parents thought they’d be getting away from knife crime too but that’s followed them, again partly because of the train lines which have made lots of the county lines drugs trade v easy.)
Influx of money has pushed up prices to a ridiculous degree in the last decade - about 10-12 years ago across much of the town you could have got, as you say, a perfectly decent 3-bed house for the prices you’re thinking of. Now, nope. And local private sector salaries are tit; public sector tracks in line with the average public sector wages, but figures from a few years ago showed Southend as one of the places with the worst disparity between housing costs and local salaries.
It’s one of the reasons Jack fucks me off so much banging on about wanting a forever home (and wanting one that’s £800k ffs!), she either hasn’t got a clue what life is like for actually poor Southenders or she knows and doesn’t give a tit. Either way, really not a great vibe from a poverty campaigner.
Even if I moved back to Southend, I’ll be in rented till I die, there’s no realistic chance of me owning a home. But my kids will still have better quality of life than I did, so I can be proud of that at least.