Flamin' 'Eck, English House Prices Are Cheap.....

GillM

ess0two wrote: »

i'm assuming you get paid more now than 20yrs ago.

20 years ago I was a first time buyer needing 100% mortgage so what I earn now is irrelevant as I'd have some equity to contribute. I'm talking about what I might earn now as a first time buyer

Generali

GillM wrote: »

The word 'affordable' should be banned! Just because you can afford something doesn't mean I can, or vice versa. 20 years ago I was struggling to repay a £30,000 mortgage. Nowadays I would need a mortgage 4 times that but I doubt my income would be increased 4-fold!

All perfectly true. However, interest rates have fallen so the cost of servicing your mortgage will have fallen. Also, you probably spend a fraction of what you did on clothes, furniture and food as a proportion of your income then.

ess0two

GillM wrote: »

20 years ago I was a first time buyer needing 100% mortgage so what I earn now is irrelevant as I'd have some equity to contribute. I'm talking about what I might earn now as a first time buyer

Are you in a FTB property at the mo??? if so expectations wise would you be punting at that level as FTB'r now.

Me i started in a 2bed terrace,which is easily affordable at the mo for a FTB,except most seem to want the semi/detached to start with.

blueboy43

Generali wrote: »

......if you ignore London and the South East.



If you have one person on the minimum wage and another on £25,000, servicing a mortgage on even the average house should be pretty straightforward as a couple without kids. By the time you get to FTB places/prices it shouldn't be out of reach at all.

I honestly never realised these were typical of prices outside London and the South East.

So the question has to be, why are prices so low compared to London? Is £25,000 out of reach for a large majority in large parts of the country for example?

The numbers are from the FT, I think quoting the Hometrack survey.

£114k wouldn't get you much of a gaffe even in Liverpool.

If you look at say the North West & Yorks/Humberside, they both still have huge swathes of pretty cheap, fairly poor quality terraced housing (and I quite like some terraced houses).

No amount of "footballers wives" houses in Hale in Cheshire can drag the average up.

lemonjelly

quantic wrote: »

Just had a look on right move. To buy a new build house (practically identical to mine) in Surrey its around £380-400k. Mine cost £110k in the North East. Amazing.

I think that the regional diversity is quite interesting.

Within the midlands I have found areas where there is great disparity a few miles apart. It is scary that within walking distance, an area can have the same houses valued much lower.

In a way, I suppose this highlights that the value isn't just in the house, you pay for other things (area, access to services, school catchement area etc etc).

But it can also highlight the variance in wages too.

Of course, some areas are also subject to postcode lotteries, where if you have certain postcodes, you can be blacklisted from allsorts - I have known employers refuse to read CV's from people with certain postcodes, & business' decline to trade in certain postcode areas too.

moggylover

Generali wrote: »

......if you ignore London and the South East.



If you have one person on the minimum wage and another on £25,000, servicing a mortgage on even the average house should be pretty straightforward as a couple without kids. By the time you get to FTB places/prices it shouldn't be out of reach at all.

I honestly never realised these were typical of prices outside London and the South East.

So the question has to be, why are prices so low compared to London? Is £25,000 out of reach for a large majority in large parts of the country for example?

The numbers are from the FT, I think quoting the Hometrack survey.

Because, rather over-simply put, where the prices are cheaper there is very little work and what work there is is more likely to be two on minimum wage.

Even where qualifications come into the mix the wage rates are pretty deplorable because the employers know that they can wave the "high unemployment" flag and keep salaries way below average.

The reality of life and wages BEYOND London and the South East is something that I think is difficult to conceive of until you have actually lived it, and no: a couple of weeks holiday doesn't suffice for that:)

quantic

lemonjelly wrote: »

I think that the regional diversity is quite interesting.

Within the midlands I have found areas where there is great disparity a few miles apart. It is scary that within walking distance, an area can have the same houses valued much lower.

In a way, I suppose this highlights that the value isn't just in the house, you pay for other things (area, access to services, school catchement area etc etc).

But it can also highlight the variance in wages too.

Of course, some areas are also subject to postcode lotteries, where if you have certain postcodes, you can be blacklisted from allsorts - I have known employers refuse to read CV's from people with certain postcodes, & business' decline to trade in certain postcode areas too.

I had a choice when I started looking at houses, buy a dive that was in prime location or move 10 minutes drive away to a very quiet area (but less popular), I guess as a first time buyer, you can't have both. Nothing unreasonable about that mind. I don't have any issues living in Durham, its a lovely place.

Generali

moggylover wrote: »

Because, rather over-simply put, where the prices are cheaper there is very little work and what work there is is more likely to be two on minimum wage.

Even where qualifications come into the mix the wage rates are pretty deplorable because the employers know that they can wave the "high unemployment" flag and keep salaries way below average.

The reality of life and wages BEYOND London and the South East is something that I think is difficult to conceive of until you have actually lived it, and no: a couple of weeks holiday doesn't suffice for that:)

I have family and friends all over England, plus one or 2 in Scotland but despite living in 3 countries, I've only lived in the SE corner of England.

When I've been to some towns in the North and Midlands (eg Stoke and Retford) I've not seen much evidence of an economy beyond shops, pubs, some agriculture between the towns and a small amount of light industry. I assumed I was missing something.

michaels

I tend to agree but think that often people fail to see the consequences in the other direction - ie those on a normal out of London salary can not understand that someone paying higher rate income tax may actually still be struggling to house their family and that the cut in child benefit might actually hit really hard.

moggylover wrote: »

Because, rather over-simply put, where the prices are cheaper there is very little work and what work there is is more likely to be two on minimum wage.

Even where qualifications come into the mix the wage rates are pretty deplorable because the employers know that they can wave the "high unemployment" flag and keep salaries way below average.

The reality of life and wages BEYOND London and the South East is something that I think is difficult to conceive of until you have actually lived it, and no: a couple of weeks holiday doesn't suffice for that:)

robin_banks

Generali wrote: »

......if you ignore London and the South East.



If you have one person on the minimum wage and another on £25,000, servicing a mortgage on even the average house should be pretty straightforward as a couple without kids. By the time you get to FTB places/prices it shouldn't be out of reach at all.

I honestly never realised these were typical of prices outside London and the South East.

So the question has to be, why are prices so low compared to London? Is £25,000 out of reach for a large majority in large parts of the country for example?

The numbers are from the FT, I think quoting the Hometrack survey.

All I would say to that Gen is 25k in the provinces is hard to come by.

But if you can handle long communtes and earn 40k ish and do not have the comfort of BOMAD, then this is affordable;



110k, one hour from St Pancras, 3 bed terrace.