Rant About House Prices!

ukcarper

sinbad182 wrote: »

Isn't 2600 a pretty awful post tax joint wage? How on earth would they put away a grand a month on that and still pay rent, and still actually live some kind on life?

A lot of people live on a lot less than that I do. If they have no children and don't live in a really expensive area then I don't see why £1k a month is not possible you have to make a few sacrifices if you want to save.

kBHX

I brought my first home 4 years ago by myself with a deposit of 20k (saved whilst renting) and a take-home salary slightly less than yours. In that time I was made redundant once but just got on with what I needed to do to ensure the mortgage, bills etc were paid. It can be done with careful budgeting, sacrifices that needed to be made i.e. no holidays or new cars etc.

sinbad182

Ciderarmy1987 wrote: »

Our joint post tax income is just under 3100 and over the last 3 months we have managed to save just shy of 6000 pounds! is do-able if you really want to do it and are willing to cut things out that aren't essential.

Has been a bit easier for us as we have already got quite a chunk saved up so this is just to top up our deposit and cover fees so we do have the bonus of a light at the end of the tunnel

Jeez, credit to people who can save that kind of money on that kind of wage.

I see what everyone is saying and all, but I've always been of the opinion that you have to live some kind of 'life' aswell, which obviously costs a bit, otherwise you may as well be dead. I cant imagine my existence being based entirely around saving.

ukcarper

sinbad182 wrote: »

Jeez, credit to people who can save that kind of money on that kind of wage.

I see what everyone is saying and all, but I've always been of the opinion that you have to live some kind of 'life' aswell, which obviously costs a bit, otherwise you may as well be dead. I cant imagine my existence being based entirely around saving.

It wouldn't be for the rest of your life.

Ciderarmy1987

sinbad182 wrote: »

Jeez, credit to people who can save that kind of money on that kind of wage.

I see what everyone is saying and all, but I've always been of the opinion that you have to live some kind of 'life' aswell, which obviously costs a bit, otherwise you may as well be dead. I cant imagine my existence being based entirely around saving.

Has only been 3 months, now we are done! are going to have low mortgage repayments each month and can go back to spending as much as we like.

Out of interest what do you think a good post tax income is to me able to save on. As we have a joint income of 53,000 which is above national median

Xiderpunk

sinbad182 wrote: »

Jeez, credit to people who can save that kind of money on that kind of wage.

I see what everyone is saying and all, but I've always been of the opinion that you have to live some kind of 'life' aswell, which obviously costs a bit, otherwise you may as well be dead. I cant imagine my existence being based entirely around saving.

Well unfortunately thats the way it is. The OP either wants a house or they don't. Can not have it both ways, save and spend is a contradiction in terms.

I bought my first house at 21 years old. It was £46,500 and a two bedroom terrace cottage. I could only get a mortgage of about £30,000 so the rest was savings. It also needed a great deal of work. I had to live with no central heating.. just a single gas fire for two years until I could afford to get heating put in. I did not complain, I was prepared to make the sacrifice to get onto the housing ladder.

Times have changed, people today want and expect it all, instantly.

sinbad182

Ciderarmy1987 wrote: »

Has only been 3 months, now we are done! are going to have low mortgage repayments each month and can go back to spending as much as we like.

Out of interest what do you think a good post tax income is to me able to save on. As we have a joint income of 53,000 which is above national median

I wouldnt have a clue, my posts in this thread would suggest I'm a bit out of touch with whats do-able or not!

My post tax is just under 3k a month, and I saved a 40k deposit which I bought a flat with a few years ago. Im based in the south east though so I guess my wage is inflated.

I still moaned about saving though, and probably took longer doing it because I still lived my life how i wanted to so to speak - like I say, im a bit out of touch by all accounts.

19lottie82

If the bank want 20-25k for a deposit, I'm guessing you're looking at houses at £200-250k?

This is a mortgage of 180-225k, which at 4% = £960 - 1200

IF the bank will lend you this amount on your salary can you afford that much in monthly repayments, if you are struggling at the moment?

With house prices so high for FTB's, along with the transport costs you mention, am I correct in thinking you work in London, and want to live as close as poss?

Even if I'm wrong, Would you not consider re locating to somewhere more affordable?
Perhaps it isn't realistic to expect to be able to buy in an area where a house at the lower end of the market costs 1/4 million, when you jointly earn less than 2x the average UK salary of 26k?

CharllieSays

<<Yep, with a monthly after-tax income of £2600 you sound like you need budgeting advice rather than just enjoying a rant.>>

The £2600 varies depending on if my partner gets call-out money over the weekends. It can be as low as £2100 or up to £2750. The last 3 months has averaged about £2600, but it drops in warmer months. I should also point out that I was made redundant 3 years ago and was working temps jobs at a much lower wage. My hours also went up last year. My partner lost two jobs (although was lucky to find another fairly quickly), and has only been on his current wage since autumn. We haven't been getting £2600 the whole time. I should have made that clearer, but was generally moaning about the housing market so didn't think it was important. If we continued to average £2600 and don't have to move again, pay out for studying or anything else, then it will add to the savings. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened in the last few years and I wouldn't bet on it happening in the future.

We had to pay out for new furniture (plus removal van), as the place we are renting now was partly unfurnished and in another county. I also study alongside work, and have to put some money aside for year 3 as my grant has gone down a lot now that my salary has gone up. His car is on it's last legs, so that will likely be another bill (and he needs it for his job, so we can't just put it off). I also need to learn to drive at some point, as I've been told my job is likely to change in the future, requiring me to travel around more. So we can't afford to put everything we take home into a house deposit.

We live in the South East. And we are renting one of the 'crappier' places in a cheap area (at least as cheap as we can go without being so far away from work that we lose the saving in travel/fuel). We have been saving for almost 8 years, so coming up to the decade mark. My parents (in their 60s now) were in similar jobs, had no help, and managed to get a place in their mid-20s and start a family 2 years later. Aunts and uncles were the same. My grandparents say they had help paying for furniture and bits for the house, but were able to buy before 30 still. Some still live in their first houses, and they are not the tiny places my partner and I are aiming for. I would genuinely love to see these 'horror stories' from people who started work in the 60's-70's so we can compare and copy whatever they did that made it possible. And I don't mean that sarcastically. I would love a breakdown of what their finances were day to day!

We do not have credit card or personal loan debts, so the only thing we are paying back is his student loan and future payments for my degree (have 2 years left of this).

Edit: We moved from a cheaper area of the country due to lack of jobs. Yes, houses were a bit cheaper, but neither of us could get jobs paying enough (in my case I was made redundant and was only getting temp contracts after that) so moved back to South East.

AlexTheBird

Hey CharlieSays...

I totally emphathise and I'm sorry that things are getting you down...

We're a wee bit older than you (36 and 35 respectively) and we left London last year as we came to the realisation that we would never, ever be able to get on the property ladder there. (I appreciate you might not live in London, but possibly a big city?).

We now live in Bedfordshire, and I commute into London every day. It actually takes me less time on an overground service than it did on the underground. We love our new life in the country and the house prices where we live are exceptionally good value, so we are now about to buy our first home. I've taken a £400 pay cut per month by paying for travel (my company don't offer season ticket loans or help with travel costs) but we've taken out a very affordable mortgage that is a tiny bit more than we pay in rent per month.

I *hope* there will be more mortgage deals for people with less deposits in the future... perhaps you should meet with an IFA to help with your situation and get an idea of how much you could afford? (maybe you've done this already). We also found the Money Advice Service had a great budgeting tool on it?

Good luck and don't lose heart. There are lots of ways to save money out there - you just have to do your research and treat it like a fun thing to do, rather than a chore