How long to wait - FTB?

tb1105

I am currently a Trainee Primary Teacher (PGCE) and hopefully will have a job lined up for September with a starting salary of £20k.
My fiancee works in pharmaceuticals and is studying for a degree part time. He earns £14k from there and another £3k from bar work.

We have saved £8k but are using it for our wedding in August. We decided to get married because when we have ahouse, we won't be able to make any savings! We currently live with his parents and only pay £200 a month rent.

I will only be able to start saving towards a deposit in September. How long do you think house prices will fall or stay low for? I think this will be our only opportunity to get on the housing market before they go back up again but we are looking at early 2010 to be buying... do you think this will be possible? We have seen a lovely 3 bed house near us fall from £190k to £140k and it is so frustrating that I don't have a salary at the moment!

Thanks in advance
Toni

kunekune

Why do you need an expensive wedding? It seems a complete waste of money that you would be better off saving.

zaphod_beeblebrox_2

This is taken from www.housepricecrash.co.uk

Take a look at the last bust in 1989, it took 7 years just to level off and a further 5 years to reach the values of '89

No crystel ball but maybe looking at the same pattern building up, albeit, as you can see from the graph, this time its steeper. I would look to buy late 2009 but make offers at 20-30% discount. Rent for now there is a glut of rentals out there

sympatex

HPC graph is suggesting we're almost back on trend, that's far to bullish for HPC really! When that graph reaches 115-120k it might be a buy sign.... if you can of course.

tb1105

kunekune wrote: »

Why do you need an expensive wedding? It seems a complete waste of money that you would be better off saving.

because we have worked and saved hard to make the best day of our life a good one. it's our money and our spending!
:beer:
Thanks for that info, so when was the last crash and where are we in relation to that graph? Still on the crash or making its way up? From the news I'd guess still on the way down, but I try not to believe all that I read. From the graph, when is it predicted to start recovering?

poppysarah

The best day of your life is in reality when you own your home outright and don't pay anything else to a mortgage or rent.

Scale the wedding down a bit and have 4k deposit instantly.
It's not how much you spent when you're stood at the altar, it's about who you stand next to.

kunekune

I wasn't getting at you for wanting a special day, although I have doubts about whether you need to spend a lot of money to do that (ours cost £200, including clothes and two rings, I seem to recall, although it was 25 years ago). But it is a reasonable question to ask when you post on here about how long it will take to save up the deposit or a house and then say you can't do it until after the wedding.

yorkshire-simon

zaphod_beeblebrox wrote: »

This is taken from www.housepricecrash.co.uk

Take a look at the last bust in 1989, it took 7 years just to level off and a further 5 years to reach the values of '89

No crystel ball but maybe looking at the same pattern building up, albeit, as you can see from the graph, this time its steeper. I would look to buy late 2009 but make offers at 20-30% discount. Rent for now there is a glut of rentals out there

The red trend line is simply an average of all the points across the chart.

If you assume that once the graph falls down to the red line you would be wrong as the trend curve is skewed by the massive bubble that is bursting. There has been a conversation on HPC saying that the trend line needs to be adjusted to take account of the falls in prices that are occuring across the country.

Expect to see house prices to fall to within reasonable lending limits (3.5 X average salary), remembering that people need a decent deposit.

More unemployment or lack of job security is likely to have a bad effect on house prices.

Glen0000

kunekune wrote: »

Why do you need an expensive wedding? It seems a complete waste of money that you would be better off saving.

We "only" spent £4k, but looking back now wishing we had spent £1k and saved the rest.

Yes, you wedding day is special, but it is only one day. I would keep saving, buy a house at the end of the year and then start saving to get married.

No offence, but if you live with his parents you haven't really lived together and need some time in your own house alone before you committ.

tb1105

ok well firstly you don't know my situation so can't really judge my living arrangement. We have lived together for 3 yrs so yes we know we are ready to commit. It is his dad's house (council house) but we have our own fridge, freezer etc., I do our own cooking/washing/cleaning and we do our own shopping etc., have our own TV and computer in our large double bedroom so keep ourselves to ourselves. We just happen to be very lucky in that his dad charges us minimal rent.

Secondly, I'm not here to defend me spending money on my wedding, we are going to Barbados and having a reception at home, doing it as cheaply as we can so don't want to cut back any more.

My original question is with regards to the house prices falling, do you think they are going to continue to fall or stay low for at least another year? Our other alternative is to buy the house we are in but then it gets difficult if and when we want to sell as obviously we can't make his dad homeless so we would much prefer to get our own place that we can call our own home if that makes any sense? When I start my first post in September I will be able to put away £1k a month. My fiancee has £2k saved towards the house already and is saving £500 a month on top. We are registed with shared ownership schemes so that is also an option if we can't raise a 10% deposit. Also, the teachers building society does very good 90 - 100% mortgages for teachers but we need to get on it at the right time.

zaphod_beeblebrox_2

yorkshire-simon wrote: »

The red trend line is simply an average of all the points across the chart.

If you assume that once the graph falls down to the red line you would be wrong as the trend curve is skewed by the massive bubble that is bursting. There has been a conversation on HPC saying that the trend line needs to be adjusted to take account of the falls in prices that are occuring across the country.

Expect to see house prices to fall to within reasonable lending limits (3.5 X average salary), remembering that people need a decent deposit.

More unemployment or lack of job security is likely to have a bad effect on house prices.

Which part of this did you not understand? ....


Take a look at the last bust in 1989, it took 7 years just to level off and a further 5 years to reach the values of '89