Owning your own home

but I've got a few friends who've sold up in London and moved out to the sticks to start families/etc, boasted about their huge house and a garden that's bigger than our local park, and a few years later they're desperate to move back to London but can't afford to.

I don't have any friends, but this would have been me about 5 years ago. Not boasting about a huge house etc, but moving out and then going mad.