Rant About House Prices!

Itismehonest

Excuse the snip

CharllieSays wrote: »

We just want somewhere to live, grow food and possibly bring up a family one day (if we are able to).

While I know that things are much tougher now for FTB particularly in certain areas of the country I do often wonder if part of the problem isn't also down to expectations.

Even those of us who now live in the sort of place you describe or better could never have afforded to do it as FTB.
It was often a flat or small back-to-back terrace in a not so desirable area that was the only home we could initially afford. The majority who lived in towns or cities certainly couldn't afford a family home with a sizeable garden or land to 'grow their own' to any real extent.

It was also very much a matter of not being able to afford to go out, take holidays, run a car or even possibly have a TV or phone in order to afford our first homes.
Now these things seem to be looked on as necessities not the luxuries. While they undoubtedly make life easier they are really still luxuries.
A family was, as from what you have said you obviously realise, well down the list of what could be afforded. Many people worked at more than one job to be able to save deposits.

We none of us easily get everything we want in life. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices & sometimes there are tough choices to be made.

ukcarper

　

　

I bought in 1970s at the age of 22 I lived with my parents as did my future wife it took us a year to save the 10% deposit. We stayed in most of the time only going out for a quite drink at weekend.

In the area we bought prices almost doubled in a year and we managed to buy just in time.

If I remember rightly we were earning just over £2000 a year combined before tax the house we bought was £8k house was about 20 miles from where we worked as to expensive nearer.

The thing is things were very different then and it's hard to compare I left school at 16 as most people did and was earning a reasonable salary at 21 after my apprenticeship. I got married at 22 which was normal for that time.

Dukesy

I know it's not what you want to hear, but you really do need to sort out your spending. You have a better joint income than OH and I did when we bought our last and our current houses, and we have never been given money. I think you need to take a VERY good look at your expenses - could you rent a cheaper place? Could you spend less on your shopping? I do all of mine at Aldi these days and save a lot of money. Where is your money actually going?

If you really want to buy a house, you need to take a long, hard look at your finances. You can cut back and still enjoy life, and it only needs to be for a couple of years.

moneyistooshorttomention

There were people in my generation (ie Baby Boomer) who didn't manage to buy their starter homes until pretty late as well. Because I was single I was unable to buy mine until I was well into my 30s. I was also in the position where I knew everyone (well everyone I knew certainly) had got theirs when they thought they would (in their 20s) so it was very hard to cope mentally with still living in rented accommodation at a time of life/in an era where everyone I knew had long since bought theirs.

Even at my age, I don't have "somewhere to grow food" yet - not so much as a tiny patch of earth, as I'm still in that starter house and have only a tiny back yard and have been doing the best I can to put my garden into pots before realising it was just so much more expensive and more work than if I had a proper garden.

I'm now having to move to a cheaper area to be able to get the sort of house everyone I know got much earlier in life (assuming they stayed married).

So I do feel sorry for the next generation down - but it was also hard for those of us who were single in my generation and had low-paid jobs rather than careers (and harder mentally because of everyone else having better accommodation than us - no shoulders to moan on about not having our house yet for us singlies at that time...). No-one "understood" at all - because they either werent single and assumed I'd get married to solve my housing problem or they were decently paid (so didnt feel the financial pressure to get married regardless that I felt under).

newsgroup_monkey

I first bought in 1997 at 25. I kept the cost under 60k to avoid stamp duty. 5% deposit (£3k) was all that was required. Conveyancing was pence (£500 or something).

Now I find myself re-married, early 40s (wife is 38) and we have absolutely no chance of getting on the housing ladder in the near future as we re-financed as she wanted to retrain for 6 years. She is just getting back into the job market, but to get the £20k+ to buy our own place in a particularly cheap part of the South (Bedfordshire), it's going to be a hard couple of years - nothing at all for us, minimum for kids. My kids are at an age (12 and 16) where I am stuck between a rock and a hard place in that it's not their fault why we want our own place (our rented place is just great) and it's difficult to justify lowering their quality of life for our own gains......

19lottie82

newsgroup_monkey wrote: »

Now I find myself re-married, early 40s (wife is 378)

Is she in to toyboys? :rotfl:

GDB2222

Charlie is right: house prices are much higher compared to earnings than they used to be. It's now enshrined in government policy, ie to keep house prices high so the banks don't get any buster.

The only real solution is to save up a deposit, whatever sacrifices are needed. That means staying in work, doing whatever work is available, all the time. Umm, sorry.

CharllieSays

Going on last month, took home £2268.40 combined (estimating his figures based on £18k on http://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php). I know he got another £100 in call out on top of that, but that went on petrol money for previous month to clear card.

Rent: £510
Fuel (bf's work): £380
Transport (my work): £194 (usually buses, but had to get train twice due to bad weather)
Uni (due Sept): £148
Internet (use for work/study): £28.42
Food: £95 (roughly - we had my sister stay for a weekend, so a bit more than usual)
Sister's Birthday: £35
Mother's Day card/pres (I don't get to see her much, so feel like this is justified): £30
Mobile: £5 or less (I'm on PAYG and barely use it)
Prescriptions, painkillers, etc (endometriosis): £18
Heating: averages £44.52
Water: averages £38.80
Council Tax: £118
TV Licence: £12.13
Toilettries: £32 (buy in bulk, but probably higher than average due to above medical annoyance)
2 books for uni (get as many as possible in library): £32.80
Car insurance, tax, etc: Have no idea, as partner sorts this out.

Total: £1721.67 (+ whatever for car)

I've probably missed things out here, as only have bank statement and bill receipts to hand. I know my boyfriend had to buy another pair of work boots, as his (literally) fell apart! I don't know how much they cost though. I put £380 into ISA at the end of Feb .

I don't know where we can cut back to save any more. The food bill is likely to go up in future, as a lot of things make my endometriosis worse and that in itself costs money. But for now we just buy cheap, durable stuff in bulk (pasta, noodles, tinned stuff, etc) and arrange cooked meals on Sunday nights to freeze. I can get away with skipping meals, but my boyfriend has a really physical job and has to get enough calories.

* And most of the flats in this area without gardens are for rent. There are very few places that don't have a small garden of some sort. I wouldn't care if we just had a window box. A garden isn't essential at this point. It's just that all the properties we've seen had gardens anyway.

CharllieSays

<<It's now enshrined in government policy, ie to keep house prices high so the banks don't get any buster.>>

I don't know how far up in government you are, but if you get to speak to anyone with any real power then please please please suggest they take away the power of the banks to control the majority-digital money supply and start doing it themselves!

dtsazza

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.

How much do you consider it costs to have some kind of life? Again the issue probably comes down to expectations.

It's definitely not the case that you need to spend loads of cash. Part of my "life" is cycling round to friends' houses and playing (European) board games - net cost, zero. Or taking a DVD out of the library, buying a bottle of wine, and watching with GF/others. Or walking/reading in the park on sunny days. Or meeting people for a coffee and a chat.

Having a life doesn't mean spending £30 in the pub, or on cinema tickets + popcorn, or gig entry every day. The main component of having a life is spending time with other people, and that's free. If you choose expensive activities it will cost a lot, but I can say from experience that I have a great time with my friends doing things that cost essentially nothing.