How can houses become affordable ?

Thinkingbob

What would need to happen to make houses affordable for first time buyers?

Is mortgage slavery the only way. I mean you work all your life to pay the fat bankers fat salaries and if you are lucky you get to enjoy a house that you own outright at the age when you will need a bloody stair lift to get to the first floor. :doh:

Any ideas no matter how radical or hypothetical welcome. I just want to get the debate started. There has got to be another way and I'm sure someone here has some good ideas. You are a clever bunch allegedly.

esuhl

House prices are left to market forces, so they reflect what people are willing to pay. As the population continues to increase and less land is available for development, demand will go up but supply won't keep pace, so the price of houses is likely to rise in future (in real terms) whatever happens to the economy... Unless it goes totally t**s up and we end up with lots of creditors trying to get rid of repossessed houses on the cheap...

That's my guess...

BitterAndTwisted

Houses have never been "affordable" so I doubt they ever will become so. In the not-so distant past, long before manic house-price inflation became the norm, property ownership for most ordinary working-class people was only a pipe-dream, a distant fantasy. It's just that people's expectations have changed, where everybody and their dog aspires to something which is only attainable by the brave and better-paid and always has been.

dlk

Thinkingbob wrote: »

What would need to happen to make houses affordable for first time buyers?

They need to work hard and save up like every generation has had to do!

Armorica

I'm not sure what banks have to do with the high cost of housing - they are only responsible for providing a mortgage if you can't afford to pay cash

It's simple supply and demand, for cheaper houses - there need to be more of them. Or move to a region where not many people want to live and houses will be cheap.

Running_Horse

You would think they would create a forum where people could discuss house prices.

Oh wait...

desert_rose

One of the best ways is to buy a 'doer upper', take a few years getting it modernised, decorated, new bathroom/kitchen and at the same time (hopefully) you're building equity towards something bigger, better, more aspirational.

This is how most of my generation (50 plus) managed to get onto the housing ladder. It does mean being as frugal as possible initially and not lusting after holidays, gadgets, new cars.

In my personal experience it also meant working a second job for the first few years just to keep our heads above water.

Hard, but do-able.

GDB2222

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Houses have never been "affordable" so I doubt they ever will become so. In the not-so distant past, long before manic house-price inflation became the norm, property ownership for most ordinary working-class people was only a pipe-dream, a distant fantasy. It's just that people's expectations have changed, where everybody and their dog aspires to something which is only attainable by the brave and better-paid and always has been.

Whilst all this is true, the fact is that house prices are much more expensive relative to salaries than they have been in the past. so, the OP does have a valid point, and it is unfair simply to brush it aside.

The current very low interest rates are preventing house prices dropping. I strongly suspect that this is a government policy. If house prices were allowed to drop further, this would put much more pressure on the banks, and we would all have to dig into our pockets to bail them out yet again.

Emmzi

have one second hand car per couple, stop buying gasdgets, have a week in a caravan one a year, and don't put your kids in designer clothes?

tabby_cats_mum

Emmzi wrote: »

have one second hand car per couple, stop buying gasdgets, have a week in a caravan one a year, and don't put your kids in designer clothes?

Yep that's the answer, OH and I bought a very cheap house, have slowly improved it over the years, holidays in this country, old bangers for years and now in our late 40's have a brand new car and a mortgage about to be paid off. Yes we have a smaller house than most of my friends but no debt any longer and lots of spare cash.

mufi

Quite! Far too many 'necesseties' now. In 1973, we had to move 150 miles to afford a small house. Both on (then) average wage, the mortgage was the maximum available, at the time once x my annual salary, three times x his); we had saved a half decent deposit by staying in for a couple of years...

Moved a couple of times, got promotions, usual stuff, finally paid off mortgage in 2000; only in the last ten years or so have we done exotic travel, nice cars, expensive furniture...

Eeh, we 'ad it tough as well:D.