What are reasonable house prices?

JayScottGreenspan

pickles110564 wrote: »

The problem with most people on this forum is that they think they should be able to go and buy a four bed detached with an acre of land.
They are just unrealistic, they should do what we all have done and set your sights at the bottom end of the market and work your way towards the top.
Their attitude is just typical of todays generation of wanting everything now and not prepared to save to get it.

The problem with this argument is that it doesn't distinguish between different points in the housing market cycle, so doesn't really help anyone make a decision.

Using that argument, you would buy in 1989 or 2007 just as readily as you would buy in 1995 or 2013.

ninky_2

chewmylegoff wrote: »

wage slave vs. life long uncertaintly and battle for survival

i'd take wage slave any day.

fair point. but i also think the current system of housing distribution via mortgage / debt may not be the best idea we can come up with. there are lots of interesting ideas around the economics of abundance (as opposed to the economics of scarcity in which we operate now).

ukcarper

JayScottGreenspan wrote: »

The problem with this argument is that it doesn't distinguish between different points in the housing market cycle, so doesn't really help anyone make a decision.

Using that argument, you would buy in 1989 or 2007 just as readily as you would buy in 1995 or 2013.

I don't think there has ever been a time when you could buy a 4 bed detached as a FTB on average wages. The point is people used to be happy to buy a small house and go without what some people would now call necessities to be able to do so. Obviously its harder to buy a house at the peak and I would agree that houses were overpriced and it’s not unreasonable for a couple to be able to afford a 2 bed flat or small house as their first home.

JayScottGreenspan

ukcarper wrote: »

I don't think there has ever been a time when you could buy a 4 bed detached as a FTB on average wages. The point is people used to be happy to buy a small house and go without what some people would now call necessities to be able to do so. Obviously its harder to buy a house at the peak and I would agree that houses were overpriced and it’s not unreasonable for a couple to be able to afford a 2 bed flat or small house as their first home.

True.

Do you think they are still overpriced? I do.

ukcarper

If I was a FTB I still wouldn’t be able to buy the house I bought as a FTB in the seventies, even if I sacrificed the same as I did then to buy it so I suppose they are.

adr0ck

ukcarper wrote: »

If I was a FTB I still wouldn’t be able to buy the house I bought as a FTB in the seventies, even if I sacrificed the same as I did then to buy it so I suppose they are.

yes but now 2 peoples wages are needed to buy a home where it used to generally be done on one wage

this is because in most homes now both parents/couples work

house prices have gone up because of this

ukcarper

What makes you think that we didn't need two incomes to buy our first house

When I said I couldn’t buy it now I was using same mortgage requirements as in 70s. With 4x joint salary and 10% deposit I could.

StevieJ

pickles110564 wrote: »

The problem with most people on this forum is that they think they should be able to go and buy a four bed detached with an acre of land.
They are just unrealistic, they should do what we all have done and set your sights at the bottom end of the market and work your way towards the top.
Their attitude is just typical of todays generation of wanting everything now and not prepared to save to get it.

There lies the irony, that is exactly what they accuse 'other borrowers' of

Annpan

adr0ck wrote: »

yes but now 2 peoples wages are needed to buy a home where it used to generally be done on one wage

this is because in most homes now both parents/couples work

house prices have gone up because of this

We bought our first home in 1974. My husband had just started teaching and I worked as an industrial chemist and we most definitely needed 2 salaries to buy our modest house. We stretched ourselves to the maximum and still had to renovate. Happy days actually!

cocktail

Nixxx wrote: »

I know you said "most" people and not all people but I get soo frustrated because I earn an above average salary but cant even get a below average property with a deposit and without resorting to silly multiples. :mad:

lifestyles would need to change in the current atmosphere and in the future.
yes, it is frustrating not being able to own a house. remember with a mortgage you are literally renting from the bank with additional money (deposit)stuck in the house.