What age were you when you BEGAN your mortgage...

JaneyBoy

I'm 25 and my boyfriend is 24. We're buying a new build which we'll be moving into at the end of May! The house cost £142000 but with deposit and and discount from the builders we have a mortgage for £127000. Repayments will be about £100 more each than we're paying in rent at the mo so a bit scary but so glad we brought when we did! Even though we've been a year waiting for the house to be built.

cazrobinson

married 1998.

bought house 2000, when expecting our first baby (me 23 and hubby 30).
just about afforded the interest-only on 55,000.
m-i-l paid the 5% and we paid all the fees, furniture, appliances
then hubby stayed at home while i went to work.
i was a nervous wreck for a whole year, getting over the shock of having to provide for my new family ON MY OWN!

now have extended the moragae to pay for double-glazing (so now owe 60,000) but am paying repayment morgage and should be paid off in 18 years - when i'm 48. Hoping that in the future will be able to overpay and have the £430 a month as our own, soon enough!

: )

zipman23

I'm 22, my girlfriend is 21 and we've just bought our first house together in January for £115k. It was bought by the previous owners for £52k six years before
Not topic related but I've just been sacked from my job (gutted and extremely bad timing even though I insist I've done nothing wrong which would warrant my dismissal but thats another story for another day/thread).

I was 18 when I first started looking at property but it was mainly flats in the area I knew as I wasn't brave enough to move away especially to somewhere I wasn't familiar with. Was offered a mortgage of £53000 straightaway from my bank. If I had had any savings at the time and been able to borrow about an extra £5-6k, I would have been able to afford the house that my parents bought at the time (now worth £150k plus...Grrr!!)

Now I don't have a job, making overpayments is probably the last thing on my mind right now but when I do finally get another job and some more stability behind me, its something I definitely want to look into.

Alysie

I bought my house when I was 20 - for £55,000 - my father came in with me and we got an endowment mortgage. This was in 1987.My father thought it would be a great investment and we were told that the endowment would not only pay back the mortgage but we would both come out with a lump sum. My father was only in it for investment so I had the house to myself. For the first three months I sat on the floor and used cutlery mainly got from petrol stations with tokens (remember them!) My mortgage payments were really high for a while and I struggled but although I've lived all over the place and bought another flat and lived abroad I still have my house! Its worth about £250,000 now but I am annoyed that my endowment still wont cover my loan and I cant reclaim under miss-selling because it was too early. But I love the house and now I am back living there with my partner and my two boys aged 9 and 11 - its a weird feeling!!

*zippy*

I was 18 hubby was 20. We bought a large 3 bed semi in 1987 for £26,500, our mortgage was £19,500. Hubby and I were on low wages as he was still an apprentice and interest rates were higher then, but we managed well.

Sold it 18 months later for £36,000. Bought another 3 bed semi for £50000. House prices later dropped and it was many years before it reached that value again. Sold in 2004 for £93,000 and bought 4 bed detached for £143000 now valued at about £190,000.

moonrakerz

From an "oldie".

First house 1974: £11,750: Mortgage £10,600: Aged 28: Sold £18,100
Next house 1978: £24,500: Mortgage £18,000 (Interest only): Later increased to £22,000. Sold £69,950
Next house 1986: £82,500: Mortgage £46,000 (Interest only): Later increased to £55,000.

In 2003 my Endowment policy (taken out in 1970) for £7,000 with profits, "cashed in" for £56,000, plus Insurance Co was taken over which got me another £20,000.
Mortgage paid off !
Am about to sell current property, looking for around £375,000.

It is interesting to look back at the financial conditions at various times.
1970s, high inflation pushed up prices but high (ish) interest rates to go with it.
Late 1980s, "double tax relief madness", prices rocketed then collapsed almost as quickly, lots of negative equity around.

I started with interest rates around 7% and they went up to nearly 15% at one stage. Having paid off the mortgage, the low rates of recent years haven't been much use to me; and of course savings rates have been low, now that I have actually been able to save ! Can't win them all.

It was a struggle at times, but looking back, it was well worth it - hang on in there !

Catmeister

March 2005 - I had just turned 22 (inbetween exchange and completion meaning we had to do a 150mile round trip to sign new life insurance policy cos apparently more likely to die at the grand old age of 22 than 21 ) and H 27 - mortgage was 129,500 at 100% ... (and me a full time student!) :eek:

Now worth just under £170k; we will be moving this summer and are looking at £300k properties with a 90% mortgage:eek: :eek: :eek: (London: double the price, half the size :mad: :mad: )

13katrina

Both my OH and myself were 20 when we took out our first mortgage for £75000. We signed on the dotted line on 13th December 2002. We now onto our second house and 3rd mortgage. We sold the 2 bedroom leasehold flat for £1000 less than we paid for the 3 bedroom freehold house - bargain.

We've been really lucky. We’re 24 now and most of our friends still live at home with their parents or are renting at extortionate rates.

juliaw

Bought first home with DH in 1977 for £6,000. Remember that interest rates were much higher in the past, I can remember paying 17% at one stage.

If you think houses were cheap then, look at pre-1971 prices which were next to nothing. My parents bought their house in 1958 for £1,000, now probably would be valued at about £550,000. Neighbours thought they were mad to buy because you could rent a house for 50p a week then.

exil

Mortgage taken out at age 25, paid off at age 40. Mind you it never got over 27k and at the start was 2x my income, nowhere near what I'd need if I started out today.