My Journey as a First Time Buyer!

Zandoni

Saver-Rob, if you don't buy for a while how long do you think it will take you to get to 100k joint savings?

Saver-Rob

Thanks sal_strawberry and well done for going for it. Hope it works out. There is alot of negativity towards FTB's - I dont know why!

Zandoni - to save up £100,000 would take many years longer as my girlfriend wont be earning for another 2 years and therefore it would all be down to me. It really all depends on work also. Will I get a promotion? Will all of the overtime I do stop? On my basic salary it would take forever to save that much, but doing all of the overtime I do now I could achieve it alot quicker.

I dont think we'll be moving out with £100,000 in the bank though!

wheresmydoshat

i recently worked out what i had paid in rent over the last ten years, approximately £40k.

dead money perhaps, but if i'd purchased a house just before the price crash i'd have just about lost the same amount on the value.

those of us that rent should take our opportunity to be smug, afterall most homeowners have been ramming it down out throats for years !

pawpurrs

wheresmydoshat wrote: »

i recently worked out what i had paid in rent over the last ten years, approximately £40k.

dead money perhaps, but if i'd purchased a house just before the price crash i'd have just about lost the same amount on the value.

those of us that rent should take our opportunity to be smug, afterall most homeowners have been ramming it down out throats for years !

Perhaps but isnt the point that

A) you own your home, so you feel more free
and B one day at least you will be mortgage free and not having to pay rent anymore?
Horses for courses and all......... no reason to feel smug if you decide to rent or should you decide to buy

wheresmydoshat

i'm just enjoying the moment.

i've had to listen to so many people bang on about how much money they've made on their house, that now i take satisfaction turning the knife when all of a sudden they aren't making huge amounts, they're losing it.

devilot

wheresmydoshat wrote: »

i'm just enjoying the moment.

i've had to listen to so many people bang on about how much money they've made on their house, that now i take satisfaction turning the knife when all of a sudden they aren't making huge amounts, they're losing it.

Why do you have to be so nasty?

neas

Just like to add regarding the whole high interest rates scenarios.

When interest rates were 15% etc, people got nice pay rises every month or two.. to keep them going.... that aint gonna happen now. Its a differe situation.... and..

What is the difference between these two equations?

5% of 300
15% of 100.

..
..
Nothing.... 15% of 'cheaper' house prices was the same 'affordability' as 5% of 300k 'expensive' houses. If interest rates rose to 15%..... what would happen? Who would be able to afford a house at all? how many people would get repossessed?..... Would house prices spiral down even faster? Yes

So... yea im fine with comparing at the moment, interest rates will rise and fall yes... but i'd rather pay 15% on 100k.. than 5% on 300k because i'd be shafted if interest rates rose on the 300k scenario.

Of course this is all theory... everyone factors in their own probability...

I base my decisions not to buy now (in fact we just finished moving to a new rented 2 bed flat) on the following:

1. Its a recession.... people dont got tons of cash to spend on overpriced goods (houses)
2. People are losing jobs, getting made redudant and falling behind with rent payments
3. In general we have lost alot of disposable income (rising gas/elec) and pound being destroyed by labour... (it was 2 dollars to a pound now its something like 1.4 dollars).
4.Personal vibe and friends base.... in my old home tbown tesco got 2000 applications for temp/part time/full time work at a new store they are opening up. My friend has been made redudant twice as a chef, his wife firm is downsizing and my wifes two friends got fired from temp jobs.

Houses are gonna drop to more affordable levels... I might pay more monthly, who knows.... but I will owe less than others. Then again I believe house prices will drop back to 3.5x multipliers over 2-3 years.

nig0609

saver-rob, 11 days and no update? let us know how things are progressing.

Saver-Rob

I thought rather than just state that nothing was happening I would just leave the topic until something does. Basically I have been working non-stop which is fantastic on the money front but leaves little time for much else. I've even had less time to browse MSE.

We are both sitting back a bit and seeing what comes along over the coming months in our local area. We seem to have noticed that things are coming down - in the past couple of months we can get more for our money than we could last year. Its nice to see - long may it continue........

nig0609

Excellent, working longer hours also means less time to spend the money.
Thanks for the update.
I too am in no rush to buy, just trying to increase the deposit as much as possible, but still look at rightmove every other day to see whats new.