FTB expectations too high?

neverdespairgirl

Really2 wrote: »

But the truth is I never said that, the line you questioned was.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Really2
I am not knocking you, you earn a good wage but trading up as always been a part of house purchasing.


People have been buying bigger and smaller houses for years and years. I really can't see why you would dispute that.
I am sorry the biggest reason for moving house is more space. (or less space if you are retiring)

Honestly, you are picking now! I wasn't referring only to you - the OP said:

Is it just me but have people got far too use to jumping 2 levels up the ladder for their first home?

there is nothing wrong with having something nice which is affordable but are people forgetting the houseing ladder is just that, a ladder which you hopefully climb up, not a lift where you start at the bottom and go straight to the top or the middle.

Which seems to me overly-obsessed with the "ladder" idea.

Really2

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Honestly, you are picking now! I wasn't referring only to you - the OP said:

Is it just me but have people got far too use to jumping 2 levels up the ladder for their first home?

there is nothing wrong with having something nice which is affordable but are people forgetting the houseing ladder is just that, a ladder which you hopefully climb up, not a lift where you start at the bottom and go straight to the top or the middle.

Which seems to me overly-obsessed with the "ladder" idea.

Come off it NDG it was squarly a reply to me I replied to what you said.

Really2 wrote: »

Not disputing it may not be the case for your family but that is your own personal experiance.
But the UK as a whole can not be judged on what your family as done so the mortgage figures alone prove that people move up and down the housing ladder.

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I'm not disputing people do it, I'm disputing the "it's the way things always were and always ought to be" lines.

It is you who as been picking and mainly at me
All I did was prove to you that was not what I said.

mitchaa

Really2 wrote: »

Come off it NDG it was squarly a reply to me I replied to what you said.


It is you who as been picking and mainly at me
All I did was prove to you that was not what I said.

Dont worry, she's at me all the time, i believe i'm at the top of her list. I dont think she likes the non world is coming to an end mob;) I dont mind her though.

neverdespairgirl

Really2 wrote: »

Come off it NDG it was squarly a reply to me I replied to what you said.

It was a reply to you, but only only considering what you wrote. I didn't say, "your lines", you'll note.

Really2

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

It was a reply to you, but only only considering what you wrote. I didn't say, "your lines", you'll note.

No one would think you had studied law.;)

lostinrates

Maisie11 wrote: »

We have a 4 bed house on the outskirts of London but we have spent between us 25 years getting to this point, it is worth a lot as we live in an expensive area but I think it comes back to some of the other posters. There are averages and then there is YOUR area. A 4 bed house in say Weybridge is likely to be considerably more than a 4 bed house in say mid Wales. I dont particularly like averages, the average house at this present time is I believe £150K ish. Not in this area it isnt.....

I have to say I feel a bit sorry for Maisie. She is used as an example quite a lot. BUT I do agree Maisie's house is not typical FTB territory, but I think somone on a comparitive wage (which I think was probably PDG for the time) and age she was 25 years ago SHOULD be able to buy that house now. I don't know whether that would be the case now or not. Maisie can't be aged as we know she has a primary age child, and I believe from the inormation in this thread 30/31 is the cut off point for childbearing

Fire_Fox

Maisie11 wrote: »

We have a 4 bed house on the outskirts of London but we have spent between us 25 years getting to this point, it is worth a lot as we live in an expensive area but I think it comes back to some of the other posters. There are averages and then there is YOUR area. A 4 bed house in say Weybridge is likely to be considerably more than a 4 bed house in say mid Wales. I dont particularly like averages, the average house at this present time is I believe £150K ish. Not in this area it isnt.....

In the 70s we moved into a four bedroom Victorian semi in Weybridge, my parents third home together. They tell me they stretched to the limit to buy it with one-and-a-half teachers salaries. But although we had that big house, we didn't have everything else that families expect today. We had one telephone, one TV set, paying lodgers, a chicken coop and a fuit cage in the back garden, an allotment for growing veg, one basic car, camping holidays, hand-me-down clothes. We still have family friends on the street who tell us the houses were selling for half a million a year or two back!!
:eek:

mean_momma

Really2 wrote: »

Quote:
Originally Posted by Really2
I am not knocking you, you earn a good wage but trading up as always been a part of house purchasing.


People have been buying bigger and smaller houses for years and years. I really can't see why you would dispute that.
I am sorry the biggest reason for moving house is more space. (or less space if you are retiring)

Trading up has always been a part of house purchasing, but so has simply moving, for more space, a different area, change of circumstances. Looking back on the years from the 1970s until now, we seemed just to trade across, rather than up, getting the builders in each time. In retrospect, a waste of time and energy! I now look at friends who stuck with the same property, hassle free for 25 yrs. There were dips and recessions, but they didn't sell up so no problem. Some of them did very well financially, as the houses ultimately reached high values. Others did very well by calculated trading up. Others came a cropper for various reasons. FTBs are right to try to aim for something that they can grow into, if they possibly can.

Jaymz

I don't think FTB expectations are too high.
Back in 2005 I was looking to buy my first property and all I could afford was a 1 bed flat. I had a good job at the time and a nice deposit but lived in an expensive area (Thames Valley). Within a couple of months I realised it was pointless to get racked up with debt when house prices were blatantly going to come down.

I am so happy I waited! Lots of my friends bought in 2006-2007 and it's safe to say that most of them are probably in negative equity.

So what position am I in now? Well instead of looking at 1 bed flats in a nice area I am starting to look at 2 bed houses, even 3 bed semi's (some with garages) are coming into my price range. This correction is long over due and those of us who have waited certainly don't have our expectations too high... the market is coming to us instead of us having to chase it like previous years.

Obviously buying whilst house prices are coming down is a bit silly so I am going to hold off for a bit but every day that passes my deposit grows, and prices come down. Expectations aren't going up, reality is coming to us instead

lana22

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Yes, but this thread is about FTBs.

Theres a lot of us around that bought houses at high prices, only to find that not only did we buy them at real high prices (and all the advice was generally buy, no better way of doing it), but we now have everything...

- Falling prices (I am now in negative equity).
- High mortgages compared to generations before us
- Low inflation wage rises
- A !!!!!!ed economy.
- An eyewatering future tax bill

So not only do we have to pay the high mortgage payment, we also have to face facts that we cannot move unless we write a rather large cheque. We have to do that on wages that go up 2% a year, if that.

Now, of course, people could say you didnt have to buy, and this is true, but then we are back to the first point, all you FTB's can be happy renting, or buy a 1 bed flat....were alright jack, we had it all worse.

I get confused really. I don't know what people expect of us. They expect us to buy a 1 bed flat at often 5-8x income, or rent, but also call that home, and expect us to accept that because a microwave was £500 in the 1980's our parents were worse off. We also have to accept that people own their homes and it does not matter what the price is to them.

Of course, when we want a bit more than one bed houses / flats, were told were greedy and shouldn't be spending all our money on holidays flash cars and new furniture. Also, of course by that point, the price matters considerably to those who were saying it didnt matter to them, and they will accept the highest price.

It is quite difficult to accept all of the above, from someone sitting in their paid for house. Never will I see the types of price increases the generation before me has, those price increases that gave these people the ability to move.

If I do see those price increases, I will have lost so much on the house I have now, it will be like starting all over again as a FTB, but buying TWO houses...the one I owe on and the one I want to move to.

Sadly, there are many of us in this situation. It was hard getting to the house buying stage, and it was a proud moment to have finally got there. Now this. My generation will never get anywhere, the generation after may well do, and the generation before. But were stuck in the middle, paying the highest prices to have a roof over our heads and taking massive hits on our assets.

My parents made 380% on their house in 10 years. They bought in 1997, sold in 2007. Thanks to that, they are now mortgage free, with cash in the bank. Of course, they were saying the same things to me and my sister until a few weeks back...we had it hard, bricks is where the cash should be, etc etc, when they figured out both their children have been caught out, they decided to change their mind and stopped telling us their TV cost £300 in their day.

I don't think that's true at all. I'm 24, I presume I'm in the generation you are talking about?
We bought a house in May 08. We knew house prices were dropping, but for various reasons we still bought.
Our mortgage is now very low (tracker), and if we were interest only, (which we aren't) it would be costing us half the price of renting our previous flat.
We are now overpaying by quite a substantial amount each month.
Our house has 3 bedrooms, and so we shouldn't have to leave it any time soon.
My wages go up substantially every year; my salary will go up by a minimum of £9k next year.
We have no debt barring mortgage and my student loan.
Things aren't all doom and gloom for anyone who is young, we should own our house outright in far, far less than 25 years, regardless of what the house costs then. If it costs lots less than we bought it for, and we want to buy a different house, then that house will also have decreased in value!
I don't understand why people think they deserve to make money on their houses. That's not how life works. You buy something at a particular price, you then pay that price and you don't complain about it, because you made the decision to do so.
I work a ridiculous number of hours per week, some weeks more than 2 full time jobs (no overtime) so it's not like I don't work hard for my money. I actually don't get paid all that well all things considered. But I appreciate what I've got - it's a lot less hard than it was when I was a student.

Please stop putting all us young people in the same category of hard-done-by wingers, because we aren't all the same!