Historical House Affordability

carolt

LydiaJ wrote: »

My parents bought their house in 1959. House was £2400. They borrowed £800 from my dad's parents, and got a £1600 mortgage on the basis of my dad's salary of £1100pa. My mum was a SAHM at the time. I'm afraid I've no idea what interest rates were, but somebody can look it up if they want to.

The job my dad was doing probably pays about £33k today, and the house has recently been valued at £500k in its current state or £650k if done up - they haven't done much in the way of modernising it since they bought it.

ETA Thanks Cleaver for making me laugh. I don't know whether they had paid his parents back by the time his dad died in 1963, but they had certainly paid off the whole of that loan by the time his mum died in 1989. She was 103, BTW.

Same here - my parents bought same year, cost £2000, c 3 x salary of my dad's salary only - a manual worker. My mum did work but her salary wasn't allowed to be taken into account. Would now cost 500K plus.

They actually sold that house almost immediately - never moved in - as my grandfather came into some money, and decided to buy a bigger house with them for £4000 (he lived with them for many happy years until he had to go into a nursing home). They still live there; houses in their road now all cost 1 million plus.

So an identical rate of increase to Lydia's parents, and similar lack of 'stretching' to buy.

ukcarper

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1974/jan/15/average-income


According to this link average income in 1959 was £310 the figures look a bit low to me because I was earning £1500 in 1972

Does anyone know a gook link for average wages I can't find one

carolt

I had one I found in a previous argument on this very point. Can't be bothered to find it now - will post it tomorrow (?) if this thread is still running then.

Lakelady_2

carolt wrote: »

Same here - my parents bought same year, cost £2000, c 3 x salary of my dad's salary only - a manual worker. My mum did work but her salary wasn't allowed to be taken into account. Would now cost 500K plus.

They actually sold that house almost immediately - never moved in - as my grandfather came into some money, and decided to buy a bigger house with them for £4000 (he lived with them for many happy years until he had to go into a nursing home). They still live there; houses in their road now all cost 1 million plus.

So an identical rate of increase to Lydia's parents, and similar lack of 'stretching' to buy.

Interesting what our parent could achieve. My parents both worked to buy a big farmhouse and small holding. Dad would have been little above minimum wage now and mother a bit better. In 1963 it cost £3,300 - now worth £750,000.

ukcarper

1959
The average male manual worker earns £13 2s 11d (about £13.15) a week

Found this on another site about £680 a year seems more like it and would seem to tie in with carolt's figures

Lakelady_2

Cleaver wrote: »

We first bought a townhouse in 1923 for a conker, a piece of unsual string and some fish bones as a deposit. You could only base your affordability on your grandfather's salary then, and I remember dragging him down to see the bank manager to confirm that he earned 3l 4d.

Of course, in those days you had to have at least four roman coins and a pair of solid silver doves deposited in a safe at the bank for a period of 16 years before getting a mortgage, and obviously all the male staff had a good go on your wife before they would lend you any money. But that was all par for the course in the roaring twenties.

As an aside, when we bought again in 1936 I can remember having to dress up as a schoolgirl and do a strange dance for the bank manager, but to this day I'm still not sure if that was anything to do with the mortgage I was applying for.

Feeling young are you Cleaver?

ukcarper

I can see some of these big jumps because some areas of South West London were very rough in the early seventies when I worked there and they are now very gentrified..

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

ukcarper wrote: »

Does anyone know a gook link for average wages I can't find one

Searching just now.

Found this for average household disposable income, real, adjusted for inflation.

1971 177.73
1972 188.07
1973 198.02
1974 198.91
1975 195.12
1976 187.22
1977 184.21
1978 201.33
1979 205.37
1980 206.88
1981 200.10
1982 195.92
1983 203.77
1984 207.29
1985 215.07
1986 224.43
1987 234.71
1988 251.27
1989 254.27
1990 257.07
1991 257.84
1992 256.93
1993/94 263.87
1994/95 264.08
1995/96 262.55
1996/97 267.45
1997/98 271.52
1998/99 276.40
1999/00 283.74
2000/01 292.96

Families in modern times are far better off than in the 70's, thats for sure.

nearlynew

........ Inflation is theft

Cleaver

nearlynew wrote: »

........ Inflation is theft

You're 46 years old, drunk and typing 'inflation is theft' in to an internet forum for the benefit of a Scottish man you've never met who has a weird unhealthy infatuation with house prices. C'mon man, pull yourself together. Have a kebab and watch Match of the Day like a normal bloke.