If you could afford to, would you buy a house now, or rent and wait?

niftythrifty_2

mummytofour wrote:

Buy, due to the fact that I have been homeless in the past and NEVER want to end up like that again, there is a lot to be said for owning your own home, peace of mind and knowing you will never (hopefully) loose the roof over your head./

Hopefully being the operative word! Negative equity and unmanageable payments is not great either - I get your point tho

rrutter_2

Having recently come back to the UK, I have a 10% deposit, I can afford the £120k mortgage at the ever so low published mortgage rates, BUT as I am on my own and £120k is more than x4 my salary no mortgage company will give me a mortgage at an interest rate I can afford. Guess what there are no houses or flats with a garden in something that is not the local equivalent of Gaza Strip for less than £180k. So I have no option but to rent - cheaper, stack the money up and occasionally dent it with a holiday.
It seems that if you are a couple - the rates come down to something sensible. Guess you pay the price for being single, female, debt free and working in more than just tax here in the UK! Gosh do I sound really cynical????

niftythrifty_2

rrutter wrote:

Gosh do I sound really cynical????

No, just sadly realistic

manhattan

i am going to carry on renting,and saving. im using the interest from my savings to pay towards my rent.
which knocks it down to £160 a month.

and im staying put until things change.

Deemy

The housing bubble has not popped YET ! But it WILL !

Mark my wards... ....

niftythrifty_2

Deemy wrote:

The housing bubble has not popped YET ! But it WILL !

Mark my wards... ....

I really hope so!

Monkeybutt

Well I'm buying at the moment, perhaps I'm biased and over optimistic but as long as my LTV is < 90% I can't foresee anything too drastic happening. Bearing in mind that I also negotiated 20K off the ( albeit over-inflated ) selling price I can still afford to lose 75K ( 20% drop ) and not be too inconvenienced as this was equity from previous house.

Hopefully that won't happen though and I think we can expect rises of 2-3 % this year, especially if interest rates drop.

davelewis

Really interesting to read this thread.

Wasn't it in the late 80's when first time buyers couldn't get on the ladder that the property bubble burst? Similar conditions now - but interest rates still at a relative low. Will be really interesting to watch the market. I have noticed a trend of new build homes (Barrett etc) offering incentives (free carpets, deposit, legal fees) - they have not really done this for a few years (there was no need) - but by them now offering incentives - it really does say something about the state of the market...

Pal

I am renting at the moment, having sold a year or so ago. While I am fairly sure that property prices will fall eventually, there are no guarantees over timing, so we may buy simply to get our own place. We have such a high deposit (70% or so) that falling house prices would not be a catastrophe. That said if the rented roof over our head was entirely secure (i.e. a professional landlord), we would probably stay renting and await a market correction.

Davelewis - your comments on new builds. I think that the main problem with new builds at the moment is that they are generally overpriced !!!!e, especially in the South East of England. They are cramming them in so much to comply with planning requirements that they have no gardens, or gardens on stupid slopes, are horribly overlooked, have hardly any parking, small bedrooms no utility rooms etc etc. Of course they have to offer incentives to sell and the prices are ridiculous.

claz

My partner and i are first time buyers with a combined income of £44,000 per anum and we have only just managed to scrape together a £135,000 mortgage.

this mortgage is 100% because we were renting before and couldn't afford to get a mortgage (i have been off long term sick from work), as soon as we were in a position to buy we did because it seems people are saying different things about the market

the thing that is hitting us the hardest is things like the stamp duty, i have worked out that when we move after all the surveys etc (had to have full structural survey) we will have spent nearly £5000. this is why we had no money to put down for a deposit, we have also just found out that they are keeping a £2000 retention on the mortgage until some basis building work is completed.

the problem with the market isn't just house prices its the fact that you also have to save almost the same ammount as a 5% deposit to pay all the other fees incurred.