whats your current housing situation?

Spendless

3 bed semi for me, husband, 8yo son and 5yo daughter. In area where i want to live, where family are and catchment area to the school I want my kids to attend.
Bought before house prices rose, mew'd for house alterations including conservatory, summer house, downstairs loo. House 95% finished. Outstanding mortgage £61K. 2 years into a 7 year fixed rate mortgage at 5.49.

kennyboy66_2

1930's 4 bed semi, Liverpool

Bought 1999 - £128k

Still not quite decorated every room.

Never moving again.

PasturesNew

Single, late 40s, living in a rented bedsit at £350/month.

Savings in the bank sufficient to pay cash for a nice little place at some future point. Nothing flashy. Low maintenance, parking, place to hang my old lady knickers on the line and a conservatory (room for rocking chair and cat preferred).

Status: Job hunting.

Really2

Live in a 5 Bed Detached With detached double garage with my wife and 1.5 Year old son.

Purchased for £249,995 August 08 with a 27% discount from peak for the road (Identical house April 08 sold for £340K)
Enough equity to allow for 50% falls from peak.

Got a lifetime BOE +0.49% tracker.

SamIAm_3-2

I bought 2 bed period conversion flat in 2007 for £230,000 (mortgage is now ~£200,000). £1250 a month in repayments. Last time I checked (May 2008) the flat was worth £220,000 - it is worth a lot less now!

OH and I are trying to overpay as much as we can in an effort to remain in positive equity at the end of all this.

Plans for marriage & family on hold . Which is a shame as I am 30 now :eek: - not getting any younger!!!

gingin_2

We are a family of 4 and rent a 4 bed terrace. Have been here 5 years, would have moved on earlier had it not been for having a perfect landlord who leaves us to do our own thing. I forget we rent this house most of the time. We spend under 15% of our net income on rent, so have saved a good deposit for when we eventually buy. Not in any rush now though. Identical houses to this one have sold for around 20% less.

Thrugelmir

Sold 2 seperate homes in April / May 2007. So that we could both relocate and buy a home together. ( Met on internet and spent 2 years commuting, we lived and worked 40 miles apart). After 2 months of grabbing a bed where ever we could. Finally bought a property in July 2007.

This was after one near disaster of putting an offer in a house supposedly worth £210k only to have it valued at £183k! The Halifax was both the EA and the mortgage broker! So spent weeks arguing that we shouldn't have to pay the £495 mortgage/property valuation fee. Funnily enough all went quiet when we said that we would take the case to the banking ombudsman.

Back to the main topic. After a lesson learnt and using upmystreet to find house price selling prices. We bought our current house for £195k. This was full asking price as houses in the area sold within a matter of of days if not hours. Since then still not seen anything comparable to buy. Maybe worth about £180k. Though have spent money on electric, double glazing, new kitchen and the garden, so purchase cost is a lot higher.

So even though market has turned down. Our 2 original houses sold for a combined £290k, we have a reduced total mortgage committment. We fixed on lifetime tracker of .35% over BOE base. We've maintained our mortgage repayments so are now overpaying by £307 pm. on the lastest forecast this will reduce our original mortgage term from 15 years to 12 years 1 month.

As long as we can afford the mortgage we are happy. We bought our house as it was within budget and close to all the amenities we use. The garden is big enough without being excessive. We can walk everywhere we need to go. So leaving the car behind is pleasant too. Particularly as I lived in a rural area where the nearest pub was 3 miles away, petrol station 6 miles and supermarket 14 miles.

Sure we dream about the houses we see on Grand Designs, but a house is only a house. We prefer to spend our money travelling and seeing the natural wonders of the world. As one thing is for sure there's only so much you can do with a house.

When you move from one house to another you soon forget about the last.

SingleSue

Divorced with 3 children, 10,12 and 15.

Currently living in a 3 bed semi detached housing association house in a nice quiet road.

Did once own, purchased early 1990 for 41k - repossessed late 1994 and house sold for £25k (or around that area anyway!).

Have vowed never to have a mortgage ever again, although would buy outright if my numbers came up.

Not working due to disabled children and awkward care issues but trying my hardest to find something by improving my CV and applying like mad for jobs plus also developing something which could make my own income and possibly become self employed in the future.

Cleaver

Mid 30's male, married and an Eskimo. Full time at the moment but if the fish keep drying up I'll either move to part time are go self-employed.

Live in a Igloo on the west side of Alaska which was bought for £89,000 in 2003. Put down a deposit of £30k, two seals and a furry hood. Don't think we're in negative equity yet but I notice that they just aren't selling at the moment.

I bought a couple of Igloos in 2005 which were both half melted and needed doing up. I re-built them and put in some laminate and now rent both out for £400 a month. Planning to use both as a pension or to buy more fish.

Currently a bit cold.

SamIAm_3-2

Cleaver wrote: »

Mid 30's male, married and an Eskimo. Full time at the moment but if the fish keep drying up I'll either move to part time are go self-employed.

Live in a Igloo on the west side of Alaska which was bought for £89,000 in 2003. Put down a deposit of £30k, two seals and a furry hood. Don't think we're in negative equity yet but I notice that they just aren't selling at the moment.

I bought a couple of Igloos in 2005 which were both half melted and needed doing up. I re-built them and put in some laminate and now rent both out for £400 a month. Planning to use both as a pension or to buy more fish.

Currently a bit cold.

Now that's funny :rotfl: