A first-time buyer's story

ruggedtoast

sympatex wrote: »

Ruggedtoast, but do they "have" to move, unaffordable/breakup/job location change. If it was something like their commute became longer or simply don't like the area, surely they are 'aspirational' movers in which case they are going to have to sit tight! I'm a FTB, same age as loose cannon, been saving same amount of time too, infact i saved my student loan for a deposit also(which i'm promptly paying back incredibly slowly and will be student loan debt free when i'm 50!) It seem's we're stuck in the period off high costs for loans and high house prices (hang over from cheap money, doh). I want to buy at the beginning of next year with my gf as it's 'that time' for us and can no longer stay at home (Boohoo). I have no doubt that house prices will continue to depreciate which is something i accept but hopefully we can plan for the future as best we can, try to get as smaller mortgage as possible, mix in a few overpayments, and select a mortgage to run over 3-5 years and fingers crossed it won't be so bad in 2014!! by which time i'll be halfway dead.

Paragraph breaks are your friend.

Anyway - even if youre only in neutral equity that still leaves you needing a 100% mortgage to move not including fees, not easy to come by.

They will have to sit tight in their 1 bed flat, as will countless other married couples, too broke and lacking in space to be able to sensibly plan to have children. 2014 will be too late many.

sympatex

paragraphs are for wimps!

duley noted.

Austin_Allegro

£5,000 for a wedding?

Isn't the fee for a wedding and vicar something like £250?

!!!!!! who do they think they are, Posh and Becks?

The last wedding I went to was at the registrar office followed by a reception in the local scout hut with a cash bar and the groom's friend's band playing for free. We all had a great time so I don't see why people need to spend more if they can't really afford it.

pollyanna24

I'm 27 and a house owner. Me and bf have always saved hard. That was simply the way to do it. We had the luxury of living with my parents when we were 18 who charged us minimal rent and we bought when we were 21. A parpy house in a parpy area. Sold up and upgraded a little bit in 2006.

Bit scared when I hear all the news, but we will sit tight and hopefully get through. Refixed our mortgage earlier in the year for 5 years.

I feel for people slightly younger than me, but don't see why people my age or slightly older are complaining. If we managed to do it, then surely other people can.

I'm now pregnant and will to support our mortgage on bf's wage of £27K and my maternity, but I've done our budget and we'll get by.

P.S. We simply haven't bothered with the marriage thing. Saved money that way. Getting married in the Carribean next year out of Tesco vouchers.

sympatex

Polyanna, how much and what % did you have to save to get your first place in 2002, and if you can possibly remember what multiple of your joint income was it?
I think that you have benefitted from a good % of the boom in house prices, irrespective of when you bought your second home you're now involved higher up the chain so providing you can sell your own house can only really benefit from falling prices now?

pollyanna24

sympatex wrote: »

Polyanna, how much and what % did you have to save to get your first place in 2002, and if you can possibly remember what multiple of your joint income was it?
I think that you have benefitted from a good % of the boom in house prices, irrespective of when you bought your second home you're now involved higher up the chain so providing you can sell your own house can only really benefit from falling prices now?

We bought for £110K. Saved £12K. Think it was 5% deposit, so £5,500. The rest of the money went on stamp duty, legal fees, furnishing the place etc.

We were on £34K joint income and took out a mortage of £104,500. I guess the figures are more now, but the fact is we still saved blooming hard to get there. If we hadn't bought then, we still would have carried on saving, and saving more as our wages have gone up.

We walked out of that house with a cheque for £28,000 after paying off legal fees, estate agents and mortgage (we sold and then lived with parents for a year again). Even if we hadn't bought in January 2003, then we could have saved the £28K in the 2 1/2 years we had the house.

Granted, not everyone gets to live with their rents for minimal rent, but there are loads that do that still seem to think they should be pitied.

sympatex

Thanks for that info polyanna, our first mortgage will be about 185,000, with a joint income of 51k, we've saved a 10% deposit and some additional (6k) for fees, tax and moving costs (taken us about 2years). The multiplier and ltv we are looking at are not too different to yours when you first started, we've got about 3.6x though which given the house prices are(were?) accelerating faster than incomes is not surprising. We're going to continue to save and hope a combination of falling prices and increased savings will return our multiple to 3x joint, can't see it happening though. The 185k seems an absolute mountain, especially if we lost an income, a great deal of planning is required!!

neverdespairgirl

Loose_Cannon wrote: »

Sure, I have a job with a better-than-average salary, which definitely helps, but the key is not spending what I haven't earned. Like HouseBuyer said, this pair need a serious reality check.

I hope you've put several holidays, regular playstations, etc into your budget - what with those things being essential.....

neverdespairgirl

pollyanna24 wrote: »

I'm now pregnant and will to support our mortgage on bf's wage of £27K and my maternity, but I've done our budget and we'll get by.

You've done a budget - that puts you in a great position compared with many!

Congratulations on your pregnancy. I was pretty much the same age as you when I had my son, who was 3 last week. You don't need to spend a fortune on babies - magazines and baby shops will try to convince you that you need special baby-sized furniture etc (upgraded to special toddler-sized furniture a couple of years later...) but you don't.

What a baby needs is love, milk, clean and comfortable clothes, nappies, and somewhere to sleep.

Gorgeous_George

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

What a baby needs is love, milk, clean and comfortable clothes, nappies, and somewhere to sleep.

A bit like me really (maybe not the nappies).



GG