Question for the would be house-buyers

1sue23 · 13 October 2008 at 11:48AM

I have moved 16 times now because of the husbands job ,my next move will be to sell up and move onto our narrow boat, spend most of my time there now, but will by a property for my son to live in so will look for a 2 bed terrace here in Yorkshire hopefully within the next 2 years.

hethmar · 13 October 2008 at 11:50AM

There was less need to move - your employment was normally within walking distance, at the very most a short bus or train ride. Families lived in the same streets for generations. I have a photo of a street in Bermondsey in 1930 and my father pointed out every house on there and named his relatives living in them. You didnt move because you didnt need to and your aspirations werent as high - you worked to live and as long as they had some food on the table that day that was as far ahead as they thought.

wolfman · 13 October 2008 at 11:53AM

lostinrates wrote: »

really and truly did most people's grandarnts move as much as they have moved? My father's parents lived in London, in the same house from marriage until retirment ( 3 bed terrace). His great grnadparents lived on a second house on the family farm, built for great grandpa's father. Generations of my family didn't move house ever for purpose of 'climbing a ladder', but extended, and built, or bought when they moved away!

My folks bought 1 house and are still in it 30 years on. North London, near Totteridge for about £20k. It's worth 15-20x that now. It's a 3 bed semi.

It wasn't easy for them, although they weren't bringing in huge amounts. I think they got a 3x mortgage. People today don't have the option of such a house though. It would cost me £400k to live where they do these days.

Most places I can find are flats. Houses chopped in two where the owner tried to make more money out of it. Or a new build flat that's tiny. Or an ex-local authority where you have to access it via an external walkway like in the Bill.

lostinrates · 13 October 2008 at 12:01PM

hethmar wrote: »

There was less need to move - your employment was normally within walking distance, at the very most a short bus or train ride. Families lived in the same streets for generations. I have a photo of a street in Bermondsey in 1930 and my father pointed out every house on there and named his relatives living in them. You didnt move because you didnt need to and your aspirations werent as high - you worked to live and as long as they had some food on the table that day that was as far ahead as they thought.

I accept this, but this is not the argument that is made above, its that FTBs are, by definition, expected to climb a ladder, because of size of property, not job moves etc etc. as a child my family moved a lot for my father's work. the five bed london semi my parents bought for a normal multiple of a normal wage was let and we lived abroad NOT buying but renting, to make such work prescribed movement simple. Interestingly the letting of the UK home was not seen as a get rich scheme but merly a way to help fund keepoing our family home. in fact, my parents, on the rental income, managed to pay the mortgage and insurances and management (token gesture to a friend) and no profit. I agree there is more aspiration now, but I fear that this very good thing as been funded by a very bad thing, irresponsible debt. aspiration should be income, expenditure a result of that, not the aspiration in itself!

ETA: a regards proximity, i think furture oil prices and environmental policy will have some impact on house choice, and price, too. I also think planning policy will have to increasingly reflect this, and i hope employment will similarly be planned to reflect this. Jut because we have lived in dramatically different times for a generation or two does not mean they are here to stay, things may revolve, or change to yet another new pattern.

lostinrates · 13 October 2008 at 12:04PM

wolfman wrote: »

My folks bought 1 house and are still in it 30 years on. North London, near Totteridge for about £20k. It's worth 15-20x that now. It's a 3 bed semi.

It wasn't easy for them, although they weren't bringing in huge amounts. I think they got a 3x mortgage. People today don't have the option of such a house though. It would cost me £400k to live where they do these days.

Most places I can find are flats. Houses chopped in two where the owner tried to make more money out of it. Or a new build flat that's tiny. Or an ex-local authority where you have to access it via an external walkway like in the Bill.

Exactly. The semi my parent bought is now flats. my father bought the house, IIRC, for a roughly 3 times multiple of his very ordinary salary..it was a fixer upper, and in those days they were priced accordingly as an oppertunity for people to make a home , not to make money!, my DH, on a higher salary than the equivalent my dad was on, could not afford to buy one of the four flats that house has been made into.

That seems bizarre to me, but perhaps it is i who sees things unclearly.

wilksy007 · 13 October 2008 at 12:21PM

I'm a future 1st time buyer that lives in the bristol area.

Area: South Bristol
Average price for a decent quality house that you would actually want to buy: £180,000
Price we could pay: £140,000 (3x our salaries + £21,000 deposit)
Drop required to live in that area: £40,000
Percentage: 22%

LittleMissAspie · 13 October 2008 at 2:33PM

My parents have only purchased two homes. They started off renting a flat and bought a 3-bed terrace as their first house. They would have been in their twenties then, and childless. They were there for maybe 15 years, I estimate. Then they used inheritance money to upgrade to a 2-bed semi in a far nicer area which they extended to make it a 4-bed.

Edit: Oh I've just remembered something. The 2-bed semi plus its extension cost them 70k in total. I looked at the BoE's inflation calculator to see how much that would be today, then I looked on Rightmove to see what that would buy them now. The answer: a 1-bed flat in a grotty area! My mum was shocked by that.

GDB2222 · 13 October 2008 at 2:46PM

I just thought that I would mention that I live in a house that is worth around 20 times my earnings. That is partly because my earnings are lower, as I have been putting in fewer hours recently. However, the main reason is that I financed it out of savings that I made over 25 years of work.