Womens wages have increased house prices

givememoney

I speak as a woman by the way.

Way back in the 1960s when you went for a mortgage it was expected that the lady of the couple would be giving up work within the next couple of years and staying home to look after children.

For this reason the building society would only take into account the money earned by the man of the couple.

This in turn kept house prices lower and more realistic. Things unfortunately changed, womens salaries were taken into account, more money was available and up shot house prices.

Now of course it has reached the ridiculous situation whereby women with children have to go out to work to pay the mortgage plus the childminder as a matter or course because they can't afford to do otherwise.

I pity women with children today, I had it so much easier when my children were young in the 70s.

Gorgeous_George

I have had this view for many years.

There was a time when women chose to go to work for a little pin money. Equal opportunities ended that luxury.

What's worse is that working people tend to marry/get together with other working people. They buy a house using both salaries to justify affordability. The huge debt that is called a mortgage makes it less likely that the working couple will have children (and multiple children even more so).

Meanwhile, unemployed people marry/get together with other unemployed people. There's no limit to the number of children these couples can have because more children equates to more benefits and a larger free house! No childminding costs and no need to go to work.

We must stop this as it is crippling the country.



GG

MortgageMamma

Thanks for that, but, what have you based this on? I'm sure the working female may have contributed to an extent to economics in general but its extemely unlikely that the working female has pushed up the cost of living completely.

It is far more likely that when females started to work that families became greedy and wanted bigger better houses, better cars, foreign holidays became the norm, designer lables, more money for socialising and entertainment - all just lifestyle upgrades, and nothing wrong with any of it if you are working for it

I speak as a self employed female who works long hours from home and still manages to spend quality loving time with children and husband - I still provide them with a wholesome homecooked meal every night, I still keep my house clean - the only thing I feel I really miss out on is the fact that I don't have time for friends, or time to spend half an hour putting on my make up in the morning, and I generally don't have the energy or inclination spending ages messing about in the bathroom to make myself look like an inflated barbie doll for when DH comes home.

paint

We now live in a much more enlightened and tolerant society than the sixties and seventies, where individuals are legally protected from discrimination on the grounds of gender, sexuality, disability and race.

In many households these days, the woman earns more than her husband. In these circumstances whose income should be taken into account? What about single women, buying on their own? Should this be banned? And how about lesbian civil partners - should they be barred from purchasing a home together since there is no male income to take into account?

There are so many social and economic factors which have resulted in house prices increasing over the last forty years; and so many regulatory changes in the financial services industry that to essentially single out the 1970 Equal Pay Act as the primary cause is absolute insanity.

Is your gripe against the principle of 'equal pay for work of equal value'; or do you have a problem with the lending policies of the financial institutions?

I suspect a major factor in house price inflation is the institutions which will lend 5x salary and give 100% mortgages. Nothing to do with women working at all.

rls1973

MortgageMamma wrote:

Thanks for that, but, what have you based this on? I'm sure the working female may have contributed to an extent to economics in general but its extemely unlikely that the working female has pushed up the cost of living completely.

It is far more likely that when females started to work that families became greedy and wanted bigger better houses, better cars, foreign holidays became the norm, designer lables, more money for socialising and entertainment - all just lifestyle upgrades, and nothing wrong with any of it if you are working for it

I speak as a self employed female who works long hours from home and still manages to spend quality loving time with children and husband - I still provide them with a wholesome homecooked meal every night, I still keep my house clean - the only thing I feel I really miss out on is the fact that I don't have time for friends, or time to spend half an hour putting on my make up in the morning, and I generally don't have the energy or inclination spending ages messing about in the bathroom to make myself look like an inflated barbie doll for when DH comes home.

i like that post :T

givememoney

MortgageMamma wrote:

Thanks for that, but, what have you based this on? I'm sure the working female may have contributed to an extent to economics in general but its extemely unlikely that the working female has pushed up the cost of living completely.

I speak as a self employed female who works long hours from home and still manages to spend quality loving time with children and husband - I still provide them with a wholesome homecooked meal every night, I still keep my house clean - the only thing I feel I really miss out on is the fact that I don't have time for friends, or time to spend half an hour putting on my make up in the morning, and I generally don't have the energy or inclination spending ages messing about in the bathroom to make myself look like an inflated barbie doll for when DH comes home.

I didn't say "pushed up the cost of living" I said house prices. We paid £26,000 for our house back in 1979 and taking into account the inflation our house should now be worth around £90,000 but it is worth about £300,000 so you can see where it has all gone awry.

If you didn't have the pressure of work you would have more time to see friends, why should you have work yourself into the ground having a family is enough work itself I say.

paint

Gorgeous_George wrote:

There was a time when women chose to go to work for a little pin money. Equal opportunities ended that luxury.

:rotfl: Do you think that equal opportunites are wrong?

How about we pay people with ginger hair 15% more than brunettes; and pay people who stand over, say five foot eight 50% less than everyone else. And don't allow their salaries to be taken into account in mortgage calculations.

That'll sort it !

No more ridiculous than having the same pay policies and lending criteria applied to women as a group.

givememoney

paint wrote:

We now live in a much more enlightened and tolerant society than the sixties and seventies, where individuals are legally protected from discrimination on the grounds of gender, sexuality, disability and race.

In many households these days, the woman earns more than her husband. In these circumstances whose income should be taken into account? What about single women, buying on their own? Should this be banned? And how about lesbian civil partners - should they be barred from purchasing a home together since there is no male income to take into account?

There are so many social and economic factors which have resulted in house prices increasing over the last forty years; and so many regulatory changes in the financial services industry that to essentially single out the 1970 Equal Pay Act as the primary cause is absolute insanity.

Is your gripe against the principle of 'equal pay for work of equal value'; or do you have a problem with the lending policies of the financial institutions?

I suspect a major factor in house price inflation is the institutions which will lend 5x salary and give 100% mortgages. Nothing to do with women working at all.

I don`t have a gripe as such because I am one of the lucky ones, I feel sorry for people today who cannot get a foot on the property ladder because of the extortionate cost of buying a house.

paint

givememoney wrote:

I don`t have a gripe as such because I am one of the lucky ones, I feel sorry for people today who cannot get a foot on the property ladder because of the extortionate cost of buying a house.

Which is fair enough, but to blame equal pay is absolute nonsense; as per my previous post.

MortgageMamma

I completely agree that It would be nice to have some time to make/have friends, but they are not the be all and end all . I have my kids, my husband and my extended family and I just about manage to keep them all happy and put an appearance in when necessary.

I agree that juggling motherhood with work is difficult, but thats just the way life is. We do have a high cost of living in this country, and we all have so many things that we really don't need which were not available in the 60/70's due to advances in technology, for example - ipods, playstations, sky/cable tv, the internet, mobile phones, the take away revolution, sunbeds, gym memberships, more than one car per family

Kids arn't 4 to a room anymore and the council tax alone takes a good chunk of someones wage. Then think about how different the food is in the supermarkets? I was born in 1976 and never had a chilli, lasagne or chicken fajitas until I left home, it was egg and chips and corned beef hash for me and my siblings (and I made it and brought up my siblings whilst both my parents worked)

Me and the hubby were drunk the other night, and we were messing about bouncing moneysaving ideas off eachother as we overspend constantly - we have challenged ourselves to cut out take aways, nights out, theme parks, beers, gambling and to eat simple cheap meals and shopping really really cheap in aldi and the like for the next 3 months to see how much cash we can put away. I must say I am quite looking forward to it - perhaps it will suprise me how cheaply we all could really live if we needed to

Murtle

My parents couldn't have afforded the (small) house they bought around 1982 on my dads wages alone. I think interest rates may have had more to do with that then them "wanting" to buy a house that ensured my mom had to go to work to help pay for it.....as it is my OH and I live in a place that is based on my salary alone, I'm female, maybe not the norm but then we appreciate the fact that jobs aren't secure and we aren't going to live in the best part of town as FTB's. I wish others would realise that too....