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Tell me about the economics behind your house choices

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Ray_Singh-Blue
Ray_Singh-Blue Posts: 507 Forumite
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edited 29 November 2017 at 5:07AM in House buying, renting & selling
I'm interested in the economics that lay behind your choices about where to live.

One of the things that interests me is how economic changes over the decades affect the choices people make. I was born in the 1970s, and my journey has been very different from that of my parents. My own kids, born in the "naughties", are likely going to have to come at things from a different angle again.

Cheers Ray
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  • Mutton_Geoff
    Mutton_Geoff Posts: 3,819 Forumite
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    1980 Studio flat, London. Bought £19,950 sold 1981 £22k
    1981 3 bed semi, London suburbs. Bought £33k sold 1986 £85k
    1986 3 bed detached, Home Counties. Bought £95k sold 1998 £210k
    1998 4 bed detached, Home Counties. Bought £285k sold 2015 £775k
    2012 4 bed detached, Cotswolds. Bought £730k sold 2016 £1.73m (spent 500k rebuilding)
    2016 5 bed detached, Home Counties. Bought £1.3m

    The property market has treated me well over a long period of time. My first purchase was nearly 4x my London salary then and may parents couldn't believe what I was paying for a shoebox (equivalent of their house in Essex).

    First step was via a GLC (Greater London Council) help to buy scheme, where for £50 they would persuade Nationwide to lend me the money when several building societies already said no. Deposit funded by a "car loan" I took out with Barclays the week before. 100% borrowed money and something credit checks would prevent you from getting away with these days! Sold it via a £20 ad in the Evening Standard since, from an early age, I have been generally averse to estate agents.
    Signature on holiday for two weeks
  • ProDave
    ProDave Posts: 3,721 Forumite
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    Bought first house (1 bed terraced starter home) in 1986 Moved 3 years later (after the crash) to a VERY tired 2 bed 1930's ex council semi. I bought that house for it's location in a nice Oxfordshire village, anything else I could afford was a horrible little box crammed into an estate of horrible little boxes.

    Spent 13 years in that house. We modernised it, extended it nearly doubling it's size. By then the mortgage was tiny, but to make the next step to what I really wanted, a detached house was simply beyond me. And I was getting tired of my commute to work on roads that just continued to get more and more congested.

    So 14 years ago we sold up in the south, and bought a building plot in the Highlands, and built our first house, 5 bedroom detached, 4 bathrooms, double garage, and ran that as a B&B this meant at age 40, decent house at last, no mortgage, money left over (we bought buy to let with that) much better lifestyle, no more traffic jams.

    We earn much less now but with no mortgage are much better off.

    We retired from the hospitality business and are now building our second house, a more modest 3 bedroom detached just 2 doors away from the first one. This will be our retirement house.

    I would never wish to go back to the south again.
  • tori.k
    tori.k Posts: 3,592 Forumite
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    Purchased first home 2 up 2 down in 97 for what felt a massive sum of 26k up North with my first husband came away with 2k in 99 when the relationship ended, house two was a small 3 bed ex local athority house in Cornwall in 99 for 52k had a lot of help from my parents with this one, house is now a rental I remarried and moved into rented in 2012 we needed a bigger home and was out priced by the market by the mid 2000, so we travelled and made the most of life until we needed to get serious about retirement so in the process of buying house number 3 a 2 bed for an eye watering 136k now the kids have left home. A house to me is just somewhere to sleep and keep stuff, I find the whole process boring and so tedious if I could afford it I would happily carry on renting but don't have the retirement income that would support it.
  • Ithaca
    Ithaca Posts: 269 Forumite
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    edited 13 September 2017 at 2:42PM
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    First house bought for £170k in [STRIKE]1997 [/STRIKE]2007 with £20k gifted deposit and household income of £32k (age 28, no children at that point) - small two-bed terrace.

    Second (and hopefully final!) house bought for £470k in 2015 with household income of £97k (age 37, two children and one on the way) - four-bed detached in need of some TLC and extension in the same town.

    We took on quite a large mortgage but interest rates are low (and will remain so for a while), prices in our town will keep going up for the foreseeable future, and both our salaries are still to peak so we can increase mortgage payments at a later date if needed.
  • hazyjo
    hazyjo Posts: 15,470 Forumite
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    - Bought first flat, 2 beds, in Blackheath for £65k in 1991. Separated from fiance. Sold for £58,500 in 1995. (RECESSION PERIOD)

    - Bought second flat, 2 beds, in Greenwich for £40k in 1996. Moved to buy house with husband. Sold for £65k in 1998. (MASSIVE BOOM)

    - Bought house in Eltham, 3 bed terrace, for £95k in 1998. Divorced. Sold for £141,500 in 2001.

    - Bought house in Eltham, 2 bed semi, for £120k in 2001. Sold for £199k in 2006.

    - Bought house in Highams Park, 2 bed terrace, for £227,500 in 2006. Moved to buy house with husband. Sold for £228,500 in 2011. (RECESSION PERIOD)

    - Bought house in Brentwood, 4 bed end of terrace, for £435k in 2011. Divorced. Sold for £460k in 2013.

    - Bought house, 3 bed terrace, in Chingford for £274k in 2013. Selling this year for £515k. (MASSIVE BOOM - ALTHOUGH NOW SLOWING)

    - Buying house, 3 bed semi, in Leigh-on-Sea for £430k (nearly mortgage free). (BOOM AREA, GETTING PRICIER EVERY DAY)


    What have I learnt? Don't get married LOL!
    2023 wins: *must start comping again!*
  • TrickyDicky101
    TrickyDicky101 Posts: 3,513 Forumite
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    Ithaca wrote: »
    First house bought for £170k in 1997 with £20k gifted deposit and household income of £32k (age 28, no children at that point) - small two-bed terrace.

    Second (and hopefully final!) house bought for £470k in 2015 with household income of £97k (age 37, two children and one on the way) - four-bed detached in need of some TLC and extension in the same town.

    I wish I'd only aged 9 years between 1997 and 2015 ;)
  • Ithaca
    Ithaca Posts: 269 Forumite
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    TrickyDicky101 wrote: »
    I wish I'd only aged 9 years between 1997 and 2015 ;)
    Hah, yes good spot. I still refuse to believe that 1997 was not about 10 years ago...
  • NeilCr
    NeilCr Posts: 4,430 Forumite
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    edited 13 September 2017 at 3:54PM
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    Bought my first (and only) house with my ex in 1975 for £12,000 (£250 gifted by my parents). When we separated in 2001 she sold the house for £195k( don't ask!)

    Started again on my own. Bought a new build flat in Lewisham for £150k. Loved that flat - easy to get in and out of London and near Blackheath and Greenwich. Had a £95k interest only mortgage

    In 2007 decided to move down to the coast. Sold the flat for £245k - neatly paying off the mortgage

    Bought a two bedroom house in Kent for £177k. It had never been lived in - built 2005/2006. Love this house too - not likely to move unless the knees go. Recently been valued at between £195k - £205k

    A lot of stuff on here about not buying new builds because they lose value quickly. All I can say is that I've done okay out of mine financially
  • chelseablue
    chelseablue Posts: 3,303 Forumite
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    Bought a 2 bed flat in Berkshire for £156,000 in 2010 (on my own)

    Sold the flat in 2016 for £235,000 and bought a 3 bed semi with my partner for £400,000

    Still in Berkshire but a different town.

    Its been valued now at £430,000. Mortgage outstanding £221,000 so nearly own half of it :rotfl:
  • Marvel1
    Marvel1 Posts: 7,172 Forumite
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    Bought mine for £68,500 in 2007, still here, current value guessing the same.
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