Just not earmimg enough

Pobby

iolanthe07 wrote:

I just read in the Metro that the average wage in the US is 18k for men and 12k for women (in pounds, not dollars). That seems quite harsh.

I lived in the US for five years and found prices there generally much lower (except car insurance!). I lived very well in California on 16k (pounds) in 1999, (though, true, I had no housing costs.)

There is no doubt that prices in the main are much cheaper than here.Even property,apart from a few hot spots ,is far cheaper in the States.

Interesting point regarding renting.I remember years ago many people rented.However then it seemed far more secure.Folks would live for a generation or more in the same home.Now with shorthold tenancies there is no security.The lease very much favours the landlord.That,imho,impacts greatly on the tenant.If I was in that position I would think twice before raising a family.

We seem to be returning to times passed where home ownership was a great deal less than it is now.Agreed that many can ill afford to buy or indeed taking huge risks of overstretching themselves.I for one feel uncomfortable seeing this situation.

Mrs_Sparkle

ftbworried wrote:

There's a much more pressing negative aspect to renting than 'throwing your money at someone elses mortgage' that people hardly ever talk about on here and that's the lack of stability.

I used to live in rented and was (in my biased opion ;-) ) a great tenant, I paid my rent every month without fail and looked after the place. However (as with most lettings) it was a 6 month AST contract. At the end of this I asked for another 6 month tenancy but the letting agent said 'ah no, once you've had your 6 months you go onto a month-to-month contract - this is standard with all our properties'.

I had two choices, to move somewhere new to get another measly 6 months of guarenteed accomodation (and having to 'find' ANOTHER £600 deposit) before being put in the same situation again, or stick the month-to-month thing out where i was for as long as the dreaded letter didn't come through the door. I stayed, but every letter through that door made the blood rush to my head. Even if you stick to the terms and agreements of your contract, an AST tenant can be out on their ear with only 2 months notice at any time for no reason other than on the landlords whim.

Yes, my mortgage is expensive, but as long as I keep paying it no one can through me out or move me on. It is something that matters a great deal to me, I now feel settled and secure. Tenants have very few rights in this country, and maybe that's one of the most overlooked reasons why people struggle and save to buy.

I don't care about the monetry value of my house. To me, it's my home.

That's a really good point which I hadn't thought of. And while the peaks and troughs in the graph should be taken into consideration, if you can afford a mortgage and have some equity then it's unlikely in the LONG term that you will lose money by owning a home. You need to be confident of paying your way through interest rate hikes and suffering the troughs as well as the peaks but as long as you are able to keep up your mortgage payments it is likely that you will have a secure home and will not lose money.

loulouloulou_2

I completely agree Mrs Sparkle . . . .!

At then end of the day its the responsibility of the person taking out the mortgage and i for one am glad i got my flat!:D

seven-day-weekend

yung wrote:

I took early retirement just over 2 yrs ago and still better off living in Uk.

There is no way we could live on an income of £7k (or at the most 9.5k) in the UK unless we stopped using gas and electricity, didn't pay our Council Tax, didn't run a car and never went anywhere.

Here, the equivalent of Council tax has just gone up to 90 Euros a YEAR and the water rates are 8 Euros a year. It costs around 85 Euros to tax the car and 7 euros to tax the scooter.