A question for the optimists

StevieJ

StevieJ wrote: »

Why do you say this when the last time average deposit was anywhere near that level for FTB (10.8%) was 1997? (according to those charts)

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/141299.xls

Dev, no reply to this?

mewbie_2

StevieJ wrote: »

Dev, no reply to this?

Graham has asked me to reply to you as he is busy at present.

Apparently you need to take your statistics and place them out of direct sunlight.

ess0two

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

What kind of salaries do people earn in those places?

16k to 25k+ locally to me in the North.

abaxas

What changed things was WWII.

Prior to that we had some format of community, now it's every man/dog/woman/hamster for themselves.

Cleaver

lostinrates wrote: »

Cleaver's too young for me mewbie.

I'll have you know that I now have a spreadsheet tracking my savings and investments, a pension, listen to a lot of Radio 4 (and don't understand any of the music on Radio 1), drink real ale, complain that kids don't have manners and am constantly shocked when I buy two cinema tickets and it comes to over a tenner (the cinema should be around £2.60 a ticket, surely?).

So whilst I'm 28, I'm actually have a 43 year old's mind.

mewbie_2

On the other hand I wear heelies, listen to Pop Music on my radio, drink Coca Cola, pay attention to personal grooming (nits mainly), sometimes don't tuck my shirt in (unless going out obviously), and just generally Groove. Get with it Cleaver.

Cleaver

Graham_Devon wrote: »

We have risen back up to £160k or whatever for a property on average. On a 4x salary with a 10% deposit that will require:

- A salary of £36,000, likely with no debts, either joint or singular.
- £16,000 deposit
- £2-10k for fees (dependant on purchases obviously).

I've said this before and been shot down, but I'll say it again. If this is the average price and average salary then I guess we should look at average kinda age for the average house (maybe early thirties to buy an 'average' house?).

So a couple in their early thirties earning £40k between them, saving for three or four years to get the £20k in deposit and fees, getting a 6% mortgage and then paying around 25% of their salary a month on their mortgage doesn't sound altogether too bad to me. In fact, it seems pretty reasonable and normal.

Cue lots of people saying "but I live in Kent where a house is £300k." Well that still sucks and isn't very sustainable in my eyes, but I'm just answering the average question. And I guess for every semi-detached in Kent for £300k there's a semi-detached in Middlesborough for £90k. But then that's averages for you.

lostinrates

Cleaver wrote: »

Cue lots of people saying "but I live in Kent where a house is £300k." Well that still sucks and isn't very sustainable in my eyes, but I'm just answering the average question. And I guess for every semi-detached in Kent for £300k there's a semi-detached in Middlesborough for £90k. But then that's averages for you.

Yes, thats kinda what I was skirting around.:o

Cleaver

mewbie wrote: »

On the other hand I wear heelies, listen to Pop Music on my radio, drink Coca Cola, pay attention to personal grooming (nits mainly), sometimes don't tuck my shirt in (unless going out obviously), and just generally Groove. Get with it Cleaver.

Do you also go around saying stuff like:

"yo man, dat is nang bro. u iz styleeing up da massive. word."

Quick, true story. I was in the Trafford Shopping Centre last year, and didn't clock that it was halloween until I got there and saw a few kids in costumes. I was waiting in line at the cashpoint when a kid went past wearing those heelie shoes, so it looked like he was just gliding along like all kids in those do. The scary thing was that he was dressed as death: black cloak that covered his feet, a hood, scythe, the works.

As this black, hooded, vision of death floated past me I really thought my time was up. And in the Trafford Centre too. What a place to go.

mewbie_2

Cleaver wrote: »

average price and average salary

I may have an argument to deal with this. Bear with me.

IF your average salary business holds true, and IF houses are affordable to people then HOW COME the recent biggest housing bubble ever only managed to move prices 20% above what they should be anyway?

I don't buy it Cleaver, even from you, you silver tongued clever person.