How depressing - House hunting

moneywise22

doitmyself wrote: »

....
As to moneywise' assertion that if you can't have what you want/deserve then, er, wait until you can, - way too simplistic. Depends on a whole number of factors, not least of which may be the increasing value of the bedsit relative to the increasing value of the money under the mattress. Not necessarily but maybe, and who can say for sure...

Well if you cant/dont want to wait then do something about it. Money is only an issue if you make it one. We needed to make more money so we got better jobs, we only had enough deposit for a small place so we sold some stuff to raise more funds, just use your brains, be creative, help yourself and dont expect everything to come to you, you need to go out and make it happen.

Amitoocautious

Sorry for the delay been to see a friend! Anyway thanks for all the views there are some interesting ones and from different points of view.

Firstly i would say that yes a bigger mortgage is feasibly possible on BOTH our salaries but as i originally stated we want to have children so when we do my wage is going to drop to around 400 a month so a 2500 mortgage would not be feasible at all. Yes, I will go back to work but not straightaway as what is the point of having kids then?

We are not after a mansion, just a decent 3 bed in a nice area where our kids can go to a decent school. Many of the 3 beds currently for sale are all in pretty rough areas if i am being honest and if thats being over picky then so be it. A few years back a family with average wages could afford an average house, now that is not the case and so i dont think we are being funny with wanting an average house.

We are looking at places that need doing up as my husband and his family are skilled in this area but even these are at a premium and i dont believe that any of the ones that we have seen will increase in value by the amount it costs to do it up. I agree with the one poster who said we are turnin into a nation of have and have nots and i think its a little sad that people have to take on large multiples in order to get something that a few years ago was far more achievable and the have's aren't helping with buying up more properties and forcing the prices up on the lower end of the scale

As i said very interesting to hear all the different points of view

Tiger_greeneyes

One thing I can't understand - why are you moving in amongst people you think so little of? Won't it spoil your enjoyment of your new home? If it means that much to you that the people you live around were fortunate enough to get a discount on their property, whilst you have worked for what you've got (and I have to say, you do seem to have a problem with that), won't it get to you every time you see them? Wouldn't you be happier in a different area?

Btw, you can't really assume that the people living in the other properties all got their houses cheap - they might not have been the original purchasers and had to pay the market price.

And, at the end of the day, does it really matter???

Amitoocautious

Well we are not moving in with people we "think so little of". If that was the case then perhaps we would have a house already. Don't think its wrong for us to want to live in a nice area with similar people when we earn a pretty good salary. My friend who is a student and her husband who works in an average paid job have a 3 bed nice detached house as they were able to buy a few years ago and so what is wrong with me wanting something similar on much better wages

Tiger_greeneyes

Amitoocautious wrote: »

Well we are not moving in with people we "think so little of".

This quote is from your original post:

we work hard and all we can afford is to live among people who have ended up in a nice cushdy house (which they paid next to nothing for and couldnt afford now) because of the right to buy scheme

It's why I asked if it would potentially spoil your new home for you You've got to be happy where you live - and that includes the surrounding environs. I've lived somewhere where I was desperately unhappy (gangs of teens terrorising the neighbourhood) - and it made me very ill. What I'm saying is if you're not 100% happy about something, you need to be sure that you're not fighting a losing battle before you move in.

ds1980

Fair play to you for not wanting second best. But you can't have it both ways. Id say stretch yourself as much as possible to get that dream place. You both earn good wages so i think as said before you can buy somewhere pretty big and still live a good life.

You should always strive to have the best. Do you want to bring your kids up in a dump?

Make some sacrifices and knuckle down for a year or two and you'll be fine. Tomorrow may be too late though so get started today.

We have been lucky enough to have bought in the last few years but we're now comfortable to be able to ride any kind of property market. We dont earn fortunes but we'll be mortgage free in 5 years and we'll have a bloody nice house. I won't be having children until im sure we can provide for them.

Good luck

seven-day-weekend

We had a 'tick list 'when we bought our homes and were prepared to compromise.

I wish our UK house had room for an upstairs bathroom, but it hasn't. We were prepared to compromise on that. We were not prepared to compromise on the number of bedrooms, or the garden. We were prepared to compromise on the area, as long as it was reasonable (and we couldn't care less what other people paid for their houses - the area is not ex Council anyway).

We wish our Spanish house had a garden, but it hasn't. It has got a roof terrace however.

Because we were prepared to compromise, we have two houses in different countries and both are paid for.

You can't have everything, nor do you have any 'right' to.

rizla01

Well done SDW.

Nice compromise

frivolous_fay

Just thought I'd pitch in here

We have a combined income of £50k and our ostensible max budget is £250k. Where we're looking it's extremely hard to find even a 2 bed house for that.

cupid_s

Amitoocautious wrote: »

We are not after a mansion, just a decent 3 bed in a nice area where our kids can go to a decent school. Many of the 3 beds currently for sale are all in pretty rough areas if i am being honest and if thats being over picky then so be it. A few years back a family with average wages could afford an average house, now that is not the case and so i dont think we are being funny with wanting an average house.

But you don't even have kids yet!
I bought my first (current) house in what everyone else seems to think is an awful area. My husband and I love it where we are though. It is perfect for us and we have never had any trouble but the schools are truly awful. I wouldn't want to bring kids up here for that reason. But we bought cheaply and have found it easy to overpay so that in about 4 years from now we should be mortgage free (we bought house 2 and a half years ago and haven't benefitted by silly rises in value).

We plan to have our kids here because we can easily afford the mortgage and overpayments on just my husbands wage, and by the time the kids are almost school age we'll have paid off our current mortgage, and I'll be going back to work and we can really stretch ourselves for a much better area with good schools. But we don't expect to have all that now, 6 years before we're even planning on sending our kids to a school.

Why not buy something that will suit you and be alright for young pre-school age kids and that is extremely affordable with a view to moving to a better house in a better area in 4/5 years or so?

Very few people now can buy their first house with a view to it being the one they stay in long term. And maybe it's a bit unrealistic to expect this with house prices as they are?