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

niftythrifty_2

claz wrote:

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.

It's an expensive business

black-saturn

I'm definately glad I bought instead of carry on with renting.

sarah_elton

I have just bought my first place and don't regret it at all.

It was a stretching mortgage on my main salary, though I am getting a rise in April and have a growing self-employed business on the side, so it'll get easier quickly (income for 2006 should be about £10k more than in 2005, which mortgage was based on).

The feeling when I walked in, knowing it was *mine* (HSBCs technically) was amazing - wasn't expecting anything like it. I've been decorating madly since I completed last Monday, and move in this Sunday coming.

I know a lot of people have concerns but I believe the market will plateau or dip slightly now for several years until salaries catch up. I wouldn't buy now looking at it as a good investment. I bought because I was fed up throwing money away on rent. Yes, my mortgage costs more, and I could have used that difference to save a deposit but it would have taken years, by which point I'd have gifted my landlord about another £20k.

re costs of buying - these have always been there. As have the challenges for first time buyers. When my parents bought their first place (early 70s), they had to get their max. mortgage, plough in all their savings, and get a loan from dad's company. The first five years or so money was always tight, and when they sold, they barely made anything on it. But they'd saved rent over those years. I imagine my place will go much the same way. I know it's a point in the cycle where it's very tough right now, but people seem to remember a time when it was easy and I'm not convinced that was ever the case.

[Deleted User]

We bought after selling last year. It is just lovely turning a house into a home.

Gem_

For me owning my own home is a must - just so I feel at home (I also have a dog which makes finding a rental very hard. In my area it would cost me £450 a month to rent my house compared to a £250 pcm mortgage and the knowledge that my house has gone up 80 % in 2 years. If the crash comes I really can't see my area dropping 80 % .... if it does then god help those of you down south!

Sometimes it would be nice not to have to be the one to fix things though, just ring up a landlord and blame him for the leaky roof / broken pipe etc etc.

G

niftythrifty_2

sarah_elton wrote:

re costs of buying - these have always been there. As have the challenges for first time buyers. When my parents bought their first place (early 70s), they had to get their max. mortgage, plough in all their savings, and get a loan from dad's company. The first five years or so money was always tight, and when they sold, they barely made anything on it. But they'd saved rent over those years. I imagine my place will go much the same way. I know it's a point in the cycle where it's very tough right now, but people seem to remember a time when it was easy and I'm not convinced that was ever the case.

I appreciate your comments and whilst I recognise that it's always difficult for first-time buyers, most people in the early 70s didn't have to deal with student fees and an average of 12-15k of student debt ON TOP of trying to get a mortgage. Plus the population has grown, not shrunk...

Deemy

niftythrifty wrote:

I really hope so!

The housing bubbles not gone away

Prices are STILL between X5 and X8 average earnings :eek: !

Either we have to have hyper inflation or that house prices will fall either way in real-terms house prices WILL fall.

Tick... tock... Tick... tock...

ukbondraider

People have been saying prices will fall for the last 4 yrs yet it still continues to rise. I bought my house 3 yrs ago for £400K amongst the doom and gloom of people expecting a major crash in the market and yet from a recent valuation it is now worth £490K.

People sitting on the fence renting 3 yrs ago would therefore now need a major carsh to just break even.

The fact is no one knows what will happen to the market.

I personally see renting as a complete waste of money if you can afford to buy.

Of course I would only buy via a repayment method and not interest only and would also secure a long term fixed rate e.g a 10 yr fixed rate.

This way in the long term the odds are that you will still win as if there was say a 20-30% correcton in the next 5 yrs, you can bet that there will be a 100-300% upward trend in the following 20 yrs.

Joannaclaire

We're FTBs and we've just had an offer accepted. We pay 10k a year in rent, so are better off buying as we've lucky enough to be in a good position financially, that our repayments will be less than our current rent. Can't wait to finally have our own house!

Deemy

ukbondraider wrote:

People have been saying prices will fall for the last 4 yrs yet it still continues to rise. I bought my house 3 yrs ago for £400K amongst the doom and gloom of people expecting a major crash in the market and yet from a recent valuation it is now worth £490K.

People sitting on the fence renting 3 yrs ago would therefore now need a major carsh to just break even.

The fact is no one knows what will happen to the market.

I personally see renting as a complete waste of money if you can afford to buy.

Of course I would only buy via a repayment method and not interest only and would also secure a long term fixed rate e.g a 10 yr fixed rate.

This way in the long term the odds are that you will still win as if there was say a 20-30% correcton in the next 5 yrs, you can bet that there will be a 100-300% upward trend in the following 20 yrs.

I'd be shocked if prices did not rise at least 100% in 20 years !!! Given inflation

House prices in real terms are likely to suffer for the next 10 years or so, we will see the first sign of things to come THIS year with low house price inflation which may or may not turn negative. But all the while remember RPI is running at about 2.5 to 3%. And earnings growth at 4%+