Everyone Wants To Own Their Own Home - It's Only Natural

pickledpink

#1 pickledpink vbmenu_register("postmenu_13611553", true);
MoneySaving Stalwart


Join Date: Dec 2006
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We All Want Our Own Homes!
Having looked at many of the threads here it's quite apparent that most people dream about owning their own home. And it's obvious why that is.

It's a good feeling to know that you're actually purchasing your home, and one day it will be yours. All YOURS!

It's a great feeling to know that you are in charge of your home - you have no-one to answer to; no-one to dictate and tell you how to live and what you're allowed to do.

You can decorate it exactly to your liking, knowing your input is increasing the value of your property - and you're reaping the benfeits by living in a place exactly to your taste.

You can sleep easily at night knowing your landlord will not be able to issue you with an eviction notice. You are essentially King of your Castle.

It's very rewarding, and good reason to feel proud when you invite friends round to your own little piece of this planet - and it belongs to YOU!

It gives you a sense of achievement and satisfaction, and that's why people take pride in their own properties. They do all the DIY stuff because they know how rewarding the outcome is.

It's a very good feeling to know you're secure, and one day in the future your property will treble or quadriple in price to give you a very comfortable retirement.

Of course, you may have to make a few sacrifices at first (most people starting off on the ladder has to tighten their belt for the first few years)...........but the reward is that property rises, and rises, and rises with time.......................and that's when you reap ALL the benefits. Meanwhile you've lived in a HOME - and you can't put a price on that. Obviously, we will have the odd blip or crash every decade or so - but you ride the waves just like every other property buyer does. If you can afford your mortgage - and you have no intention of selling imminently then the occasional dip makes no odds!

I expect that the doom-mongers will pipe up with stuff like How will we get onto the ladder in the first place? How will we afford the mortgage?

My answer to them now is exactly how everyone else has got on the ladder already. And how the masses CAN afford their mortgages...............it's only the silly (sometimes greedy) ones who took out mortgages they could not afford. The banks play a part in that too - but no bank put guns to the heads of these borrowers.

There's THOUSANDS of very affordable properties on the market now - and instead of people greedily praying for a 4-bed detached to fall to suit their pockets - they should realise that you have to CLIMB up to those - and start off at the low end of the market before they miss the boat yet again!! And they will do! Just watch!

milliebear00001

Are you an estate agent?!

Some of your points are valid ones, but your utopian view of home ownership doesn't work out that way for everyone. I am a renter who previously owned a house. It was nice to have the freedom to do what we wanted to the decor, but frankly, it becomes a bit of a money-pit! I don't miss not being able to spend my weekends painting away! Security of tenure is the biggest problem with renting, but this could be rectified through legal means - plenty of countries don't have our obsession with buying, and usually have good protection for tenants.

In terms of making money on a property - I just don't believe that happens very often. My parents bought 30 years ago. Their house is worth 50 times what they paid for it. Unfortunately, so is every other comparable house in their area. They may be mortgage feee, but they certainly can't afford to move and release any money from their property (my husband's parents, 200 miles away, are in exactly the same situation. To make money on your home, you would need to move to a cheaper area, or downsize considerably - how many people really want to do that?

It may be that there are affordable properties on the market, but house prices have risen much more quickly than incomes. Many people simply cannot afford to get onto the ladder - particularly where areas are very expensive. It isn't that first time buyers are waiting for 4 bedroom houses, it's that thy have been unable to afford even a one bed flat!

I will wait to buy when the market reflects a more realistic price. I doubt I'll regret paying 20,000 less, for the same house, than three years previously tbh. For me though, the only real advantage in being beholden to the mortgage company, rather than my landlord, is security of tenure.

Kavanne

tl;dr

: :

frugallass

I rent and am very happy renting - I'm not interested in a mortgage and 'owning' my own home

moggylover

milliebear00001 wrote: »

Are you an estate agent?!

Some of your points are valid ones, but your utopian view of home ownership doesn't work out that way for everyone. I am a renter who previously owned a house. It was nice to have the freedom to do what we wanted to the decor, but frankly, it becomes a bit of a money-pit! I don't miss not being able to spend my weekends painting away! Security of tenure is the biggest problem with renting, but this could be rectified through legal means - plenty of countries don't have our obsession with buying, and usually have good protection for tenants.

In terms of making money on a property - I just don't believe that happens very often. My parents bought 30 years ago. Their house is worth 50 times what they paid for it. Unfortunately, so is every other comparable house in their area. They may be mortgage feee, but they certainly can't afford to move and release any money from their property (my husband's parents, 200 miles away, are in exactly the same situation. To make money on your home, you would need to move to a cheaper area, or downsize considerably - how many people really want to do that?

It may be that there are affordable properties on the market, but house prices have risen much more quickly than incomes. Many people simply cannot afford to get onto the ladder - particularly where areas are very expensive. It isn't that first time buyers are waiting for 4 bedroom houses, it's that thy have been unable to afford even a one bed flat!

I will wait to buy when the market reflects a more realistic price. I doubt I'll regret paying 20,000 less, for the same house, than three years previously tbh. For me though, the only real advantage in being beholden to the mortgage company, rather than my landlord, is security of tenure.

Some good points here as well - but I would have thought that both sets of parents were in a position to down-size and release equity that way?

Alternatively, they can always go for an equity release mortgage at some stage if they need money. An option which elderly tennants do not have.

I think, if you look, you will find that many sellers are already willing to drop their prices quite dramatically in most of the areas where that will be necessary. There are certainly houses in my own area which are on at prices that are lower than would have been expected in 2003/04 let alone last year. I suspect that for most of us who have homes we have had for a long time, we will either sell at a reasonable price - or hold on to them until the prices rise again - just as we did last time around.

The only good thing I can see coming out of the crash is that more people might just start thinking in terms of investing in a long term HOME with the advantage of increased value in the long term future. But there will still always be those who will be willing to gamble that they can make "X" amount in 2 years as well - just as there are those that think they can beat the bookie on a regular basis;)

There is such a dire shortage of housing in the UK that I'm afraid that any hope of house prices remaining static for long is cloud cuckoo land, especially in those areas that are already overcrowded due to good work prospects - which I suspect will also suffer far less damage from the drop in prices as well.

milliebear00001

Neither set of parents wants to move to a different area as both have elderly parents themselves close by. One set is already in a smallish house and would not be prepared to sacrifice the amount of space they would need to in order to free up a serious amount of equity. The other set live in the South East. They could sell their three bed semi, but to buy a two bed terrace (the smallest they could accept) but the terrace would cost them almost the full amount of their sale value (when costs are added in). Neither set can move to anything really small as both have children still living at home (who also cannot afford to buy their first property!) nor would they want to live in a shoe box after having a nice big semi all these years! I think this is a common scenario actually.

Equity release schemes are full of pitfalls and many older people are (rightly in my view) suspicious of them.

Homes, are rarely successful in 'making money for the pension pot' in my view.

pickledpink

milliebear00001 wrote: »

Neither set of parents wants to move to a different area as both have elderly parents themselves close by. One set is already in a smallish house and would not be prepared to sacrifice the amount of space they would need to in order to free up a serious amount of equity. The other set live in the South East. They could sell their three bed semi, but to buy a two bed terrace (the smallest they could accept) but the terrace would cost them almost the full amount of their sale value (when costs are added in). Neither set can move to anything really small as both have children still living at home (who also cannot afford to buy their first property!) nor would they want to live in a shoe box after having a nice big semi all these years! I think this is a common scenario actually.

Equity release schemes are full of pitfalls and many older people are (rightly in my view) suspicious of them.

Homes, are rarely successful in 'making money for the pension pot' in my view.

Depends on the home and area. I know of plenty of people who have downsized from an 'overvalued' £500k house to a £300k property...................

Just look at the numbers of equity rich householders who have bought retirement villas abroad...............................AND have a few hundred grand in the bank................

daisykinn1

I rent and I can't wait to own my own home. I want to decorate my flat (currently white and BRIGHT green) but what's the point when I won't get anything out of it. And no doubt when we move out we'll have a chunk of our deposit taken away because the skirting boards weren't dusted enough.

I'm currently saving like a crazy person so hopefully I'll be in a position to buy in a couple of years. Not soon enough though :rolleyes:

baileysbattlebus

pickledpink wrote: »

Depends on the home and area. I know of plenty of people who have downsized from an 'overvalued' £500k house to a £300k property...................

Just look at the numbers of equity rich householders who have bought retirement villas abroad...............................AND have a few hundred grand in the bank................

We are in the south east - we live near reading -

We have lived here about 20 years and have no intention of ending our days here. I am from the north east and oh is from south yorkshire. We have a fairly large family house here - which is (was) worth a fair bit of money, fairly small mortgage and getting smaller. Financially we have worked out the earliest oh could retire is 2009 and he will be 54.

If we sold our house here assuming a 20 to 30% drop in price we could buy a nice 3 or 4 bed house in the north east or south yorkshire, maybe not in the poshest area, but somewhere decent, even assuming prices there don't drop from todays value, and have some change.

We could buy a 3 bed house here instead and be in the same position, but with less change.

The house is not a pension pot - it was bought as, and has been a family home - and has never been taken into the equation for our retirement. We both have final salary pension schemes, and to be honest having been through the last property crash, you never know what your house is going to be worth and would therefore never rely on it for anything, other than a roof over your head.


Thinking about it now I suppose the one thing it has given us, is choice. We can sell (!!!) and buy somewhere else, we can sell and rent, or we could rent it out.

And we hope to buy a little bit of somewhere abroad - a small apt in Spain or Florida - not sure yet. We would like a bit of sunshine for a few months of the year!

milliebear00001

pickledpink wrote: »

Depends on the home and area. I know of plenty of people who have downsized from an 'overvalued' £500k house to a £300k property...................

Just look at the numbers of equity rich householders who have bought retirement villas abroad...............................AND have a few hundred grand in the bank................

But those numbers are far rom the norm, and would almost exclusively apply to people living in the South East. This does not reflect the vast majority of people whose houses are worth more realistic amounts, who want to move only locally to a property that is not a rabbit hutch!

macaque_2

pickledpink wrote: »

#1 pickledpink vbmenu_register("postmenu_13611553", true);
MoneySaving Stalwart


Join Date: Dec 2006
Post Count: 203
Thanked 231 Times in 123 Posts


We All Want Our Own Homes!
Having looked at many of the threads here it's quite apparent that most people dream about owning their own home. And it's obvious why that is.

It's a good feeling to know that you're actually purchasing your home, and one day it will be yours. All YOURS!

It's a great feeling to know that you are in charge of your home - you have no-one to answer to; no-one to dictate and tell you how to live and what you're allowed to do.

You can decorate it exactly to your liking, knowing your input is increasing the value of your property - and you're reaping the benfeits by living in a place exactly to your taste.

You can sleep easily at night knowing your landlord will not be able to issue you with an eviction notice. You are essentially King of your Castle.

It's very rewarding, and good reason to feel proud when you invite friends round to your own little piece of this planet - and it belongs to YOU!

It gives you a sense of achievement and satisfaction, and that's why people take pride in their own properties. They do all the DIY stuff because they know how rewarding the outcome is.

It's a very good feeling to know you're secure, and one day in the future your property will treble or quadriple in price to give you a very comfortable retirement.

Of course, you may have to make a few sacrifices at first (most people starting off on the ladder has to tighten their belt for the first few years)...........but the reward is that property rises, and rises, and rises with time.......................and that's when you reap ALL the benefits. Meanwhile you've lived in a HOME - and you can't put a price on that. Obviously, we will have the odd blip or crash every decade or so - but you ride the waves just like every other property buyer does. If you can afford your mortgage - and you have no intention of selling imminently then the occasional dip makes no odds!

I expect that the doom-mongers will pipe up with stuff like How will we get onto the ladder in the first place? How will we afford the mortgage?

My answer to them now is exactly how everyone else has got on the ladder already. And how the masses CAN afford their mortgages...............it's only the silly (sometimes greedy) ones who took out mortgages they could not afford. The banks play a part in that too - but no bank put guns to the heads of these borrowers.

There's THOUSANDS of very affordable properties on the market now - and instead of people greedily praying for a 4-bed detached to fall to suit their pockets - they should realise that you have to CLIMB up to those - and start off at the low end of the market before they miss the boat yet again!! And they will do! Just watch!

What a load of tosh. I rent through choice. For lots of reasons I am very happy for someone else to carry the hassle, cost and risk of ownership.