Buying a house

want2bmortgage3

Just after some stories from people about when and why they decided to buy a house, seeing as its such a big commitment?

I bought my first flat when I was 20 after my dad advised me it would be a good idea to get on the ladder. However most of the time I've owned a flat, I've rented it out. So I'm not sure I'm any better off than if I'd just been putting money away in savings?

Owning a property has been pretty time and thought consuming, and I wonder if anybody here prefers renting while they are still single. Obviously one day you probably will want your own home when you settle with a partner and consider kids but is there any point in buying asap rather than lodging/renting?

Interested to hear your replies

lostinrates

DH and I decided NOT to buy a house, having come very close about five years ago. DH had just retrained, and we were dubious about a big commitment (we had about 25/30% mortage on what we were looking at at the time). As it happened this was the right move for us as DH's career saw us overseas for 2 years, and radically changing what we want from life together.

We having been looing to buy a very different sort of property for, gulp, almost two years. We are were not prepared to overlevergae, even before the crunch..or what we see as over leverage, and we want a house forever for us, not as an investment.

For me renting when single/early in marriage offered freedom to take opportunities with out worry.

I think buying when the market is right is not always a bad move when young: but I feel so sorry for those who rushed with inadquate savings/future proofing. I think it depends very much on the person, and the market.

suisidevw

Renting as a student while at Uni and my first year of marriage has been brilliant. Always had good landlords and not a bad experience at all. I am however excited to be 'joining' the property ladder and spending time as a project adding value to our house and making a home that is OURS!

PasturesNew

I was about 40 before I got my first proper house. Due to my age/location, everything was exceedingly expensive when I was about 22ish - even couples were having to move 30 miles away to afford a small starter home. Then it was the 80s and the price boom. I got to nearly 30 and bought a caravan, then right at the peak of the late 80s boom (didn't know about booms/peaks then) I got a shared ownership place, which I stayed in for about 6 years.

Then I moved 300 miles, so paid off the 5% negative equity and didn't buy for 3 years. Bought, a year later the dot com bubble burst (didn't know about any dot com bubble at the time, just didn't know WHY there was no work and rates were 1/3rd), so struggled on for the next 6 years until I sold up.

Overall, looking back, the caravan/SO were nice because it meant I was "settled" and not moved on. Owning the wrong house in the wrong place though prevented me from getting a proper job and finding regular employment.

Now I am renting and enjoying the freedom of not being responsible for a house .... but there are many things in my life I have "on hold" because every day I half look out for a notice to quit letter from the LL (in case he decides to sell up), so there's anxiety with renting too.

I plan to buy in 2011-2012 again.

Mini_Bear

We will be buying in late 2010/early 2011 this is when we have planned to have saved enough to buy outright. we want to be close to the town for commuting to london (we currently live in a village), in an area with good schools and near our friends. i want a garden i can grow veg in and we can decorate to make our own.
Its not an investment purchase as it will be our forever house, it just so happened that we missed buyin at peak.

Mini_Bear

Oh and to rent in that area would cost more than a normal size mortgage and interest on mortgage would be higher than what we could get from a savings acct so doesnt seem any point in keepin lots of savings (especially with all the bank mergers and collapses!)

mum26

We bought our first house when I was 18 and dp was 22, we were having our first baby so needed somewhere to live, not a chance of social housing here and private renting was v expensive so we bought a 2 bed end terrace for 38k which was a real squeeze on the bank to lend us that much lol!

ahhh back in the day

lincroft1710

Back in 1970s when I was in my 20s, offered promotion 60 miles away from home, so rather than rent house/room or become lodger, became property owner.

Houses were so much more affordable then!

penguine

My OH bought when he was 28, just before we got married. He had been renting for several years and the owner wanted to sell. OH looked at a few other flats and they were all smaller and on the market for more. It would also have cost him a lot more to rent elsewhere.

Looking back on it, we didn't really put a lot of thought into the decision or whether we wanted to live in this particular part of London over the long term. Not enough thought really, considering what a major purchase buying a property is. Luckily for us, prices were still really low (this was in 1998) and we have liked the flat and the area enough to stay here ever since. We rode out the housing boom here, and now that the recession has hit we're glad to have a small mortgage.