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Debate House Prices


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FTB expectations too high?

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Comments

  • Graham_Devon
    Graham_Devon Posts: 58,560 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    This is quite interesting!

    From my local council tax leaflet, which gives facts and figures for my local area.

    Average wage in this council area = £19,120

    Average property price in this council area = £223,427

    I make that 11.5x average income.

    I'd have to be making £63,000 per year on a 3.5x basis to buy the 'average' priced house. If thats not skewed and messed up, I really don't know what is. And even on that money, it would be a struggle when you factor in mortgage payments, high tax levels etc.

    Considering people in the 70's etc didnt have the choice of shared equity, they HAD to buy the whole house, often on one wage, one wage which also had to support a partner and children.....are we, in this generation REALLY expecting to much?? Or should we just be happy with prices 11x our wages?
  • That's a very good point Olly and one that I was thinking about.

    Clothes, toys, furniture and electrical goods were all very expensive in the 70s and 80s. Now these things are much cheaper but we pay a lot more for housing. Swings and roundabouts.

    Did anyone see that programme about Alan Sugar that was on recently? They were showing a load of adverts from the 80s and one was for a word processer at £399 which was advertised as being cheaper than most typewriters. Hard to believe that something like a typewriter cost over £400.

    I imagine that the housing market must have been pretty depressed in 1980 what with the 1977 rent act having come into force which made it impossible for landlords to get rid of their tenants and being unable to increase their rent. If a tenant left of their own accord I should imagine a landlord would have been only too happy to practically give their house away rather than get another tenant in while that legislation was still in force. I wonder how many tenants were gently encouraged to go elsewhere...
  • nickj_2
    nickj_2 Posts: 7,052 Forumite
    SGE1 wrote: »
    I don't think FTB have high expectations. I think you'll find most of them have no expectations at all.

    i would have thought being able to afford a house that is not outrageously overpriced is not asking for too much
  • a 34 year old may not WANT to live in a 1 bed flat, however if that is what is affordable then that is what there is.

    30 Years ago it was good enough for a first time buyer and most 'average' wage earners would have been very happy to have the flat but it seems people think they should have more nowdays for being in the same boat people were in 30 years ago?

    Do you really think that, 30 years ago, the 34 year old would have been overjoyed to be stuffing himself, wife, and 2.4 kids in a 1 bed flat?
    ...much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.
  • Is it just me but have people got far too use to jumping 2 levels up the ladder for their first home?

    when i was growing up, people had a 1 bed flat for their first house, unless they had very well paid jobs or inheritted money. a few years later, they sold and got a 2 bed terrace or something along those lines, then moved up again a few years later.
    .

    what's this obsession with buying and selling all the time? The "ladder" in this sense seems daft to me. What's the point in incurring all the transaction costs and hassle, over and over again?

    OH and I will be FTBs soon. But we are both 31, and have a child, and a 1 bed flat isn't our idea of home, sweet home.
    ...much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.
  • Maisie11 wrote: »
    None of this - I have four children and a partner that doesnt work, also I have a child from another relationship but I messed that up - why cant I have a 4-5 bed house on the average wage. In fact I would like to live in a very desirable area and btw I am entitled to it!

    My parents managed the 4 children and the large house, but think that house prices should fall.
    ...much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.
  • sympatex
    sympatex Posts: 293 Forumite
    Circumstances, location, earning capacity, adversity to risk there are millions of reasons why people buy and don't buy not least their expectations.

    Current house prices are crazy when compared to current lending. Current lending is down because theirs no money to lend because theirs too much debt. (alright so thre is money to lend but the government hasn't printed it yet, or they have, but they haven't taxed it yet of the next generation because they haven't been born yet).

    House prices will return to (infact go below, what overshoots at the top undershoots the floor) as an average 3.5x salary. As is documented nothing in life is average. So will you see a house in your area, 3.5times your salary that you want to live in? Probably not, but statistically it will be so. One day.
  • Addiscomber
    Addiscomber Posts: 1,010 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    what's this obsession with buying and selling all the time? The "ladder" in this sense seems daft to me. What's the point in incurring all the transaction costs and hassle, over and over again?
    At last some one has mentioned the elephants in the room - Stamp Duty and mortgage arrangement fees. Arrangement fees didn't exist when there was only the SVR to go on, and one didn't have to keep incurring fees remortgaging every few years. In lots of areas it is virtually impossible to buy anything without incurring Stamp Duty even during this so called "holiday", and it comes in at the higher levels to move up the "ladder". All this has increased the gaps between the rungs making it impossible to do what us oldies used to do.
  • beingjdc wrote: »
    The difference now is that the average First Time Buyer is in their mid-thirties, whereas in the 1970s the average First Time Buyer was in their mid-twenties.

    I don't know many 34-year olds who want to live in a 1-bed flat.
    I wanted to clear up this falacy, however the CML has now made their statistics membership so unfortunately no link now but I have cleared this up before

    According to the CML, the average FTB age is 29

    According to CML the average age of someone with an outstanding mortgage was mid 30's.

    I saw some interesting facts released from the CML, so will post in a new thread.
    :wall:
    What we've got here is....... failure to communicate.
    Some men you just can't reach.
    :wall:
  • olly300
    olly300 Posts: 14,738 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I wanted to clear up this falacy, however the CML has now made their statistics membership so unfortunately no link now but I have cleared this up before

    According to the CML, the average FTB age is 29

    According to CML the average age of someone with an outstanding mortgage was mid 30's.

    I saw some interesting facts released from the CML, so will post in a new thread.

    I get different answers from different sources including Hansard.
    I'm not cynical I'm realistic :p

    (If a link I give opens pop ups I won't know I don't use windows)
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