First Time Buyers - Enough is Enough!

MrBurns

Fellow would-be FTB's, it's time to stop our quiet resignation at the current state of the housing market and start fighting back. We're graduating with record student debt, working full time (there wont even be a pension waiting for us at the end of it, but thats another matter) - all we want is to be able to put our own roof over our heads, its not too much to ask!
I suggest we bring the country to a stand-still in a similar way to the petrol crisis of a few years ago (protests, demonstrations - anything we can think of!) until people start to notice.
Whose up for it?
(Ok I'm not really suggesting this, but I can't be the only one whose starting to get really angry now?)

deemy2004

The best action an FTB can take is to NOT BUY !

Sit on your hands, with your deposit in the bank and watch the housing market tumble....

Lets do the sums...

Say starting with £100k cash ! yes thats cash !
And a current £200k value of the say target house type

1. 12% house price drop over 3 years =
House value= £176,000 = +£24,000 better off !

2. Interest earned on £100k @ 4% net = 112,500 = +12,500

In total you will be £36,500 better off in 3 years time !

Now you may be better of by more than that, if you increase your deposit by 10% per year and also get say a higher interest rate of maybe 4.5% net
This would equal a relative gain of £60k ! or 30% on current prices !

So folks sit on your hands and enjoy the ride as house prices fall and interest rates rise - a win, win scenerio !

robby-01

So lets get this right.You are going to stage protests because houses are to expensive, and because you cant afford one it is not fair.
Will you want people who already own houses to join you in your protests?
Or will they be limited to only include people who are homeless or still live with mum and dad.
I presume that your intention is to get the cost of houses down to a level you can afford.Then what?Will you then want them to fall further or will it be ok for them to rise once you get one.
I want a Bentley
Do you think that if I get a few mates together and protest outside a dealership they will let me have a couple at a knockdown price?

Get a grip..

Jacster_2

Robby - the plight of first time buyers at the moment is well documented and very difficult when you are in that situation. The frustration levels for first time buyers has been building for a number of years now.

Clearly you are not in this situation, but MrBurns is, and I can sympathise.

MrBurns

It will take more than a paragraph of inane sarcasm for myself and other struggling ftb's to 'get a grip' of the current situation. It can't be right that so many young people working hard in decent jobs have no opportunity of owning their own home in the forseeable future.

ravenfield

I'm still wondering if house prices will ever stop rising.

deemy2004

ravenfield wrote:

I'm still wondering if house prices will ever stop rising.

All bubbles are the same. They inflate much further than could have been imagined. Evenso to the point where people think that the rises are sustainable indefinetly.

And then they go POP !

Don't fret too much, cos the bubble has popped ! And the market will be in denial during the first year of falling prices.

During the second year of falling prices, market will be coming to terms with the drop and looking for a bottom.

By the end of the third year of falls, all hope of a bottom will have gone and sentiment will have long since shifted to other asset classes - equities ? - Thus a great time to bargain hunt

Can see it now --- The new series for properties



Though I must add the economic conditions that lead to a three year sustained drop do not lend well to cashpoor high salary X buyers.... As interest rates will be high, and liquidity will be tight !

gustav

robby-01 wrote:

I presume that your intention is to get the cost of houses down to a level you can afford.Then what?Will you then want them to fall further or will it be ok for them to rise once you get one.
I want a Bentley
Do you think that if I get a few mates together and protest outside a dealership they will let me have a couple at a knockdown price?

Get a grip..

LOL :rotfl:
Robby, you are so right.
See you outside the Bentley dealer! :beer:

pspinsight

The latest rightmove house price index for April:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/rm/template/publicsite%2Caboutus%2CRTPRArchive.vm/svr/3006;jsessionid=1269E5AFA145FC2606BD4494CFCD03AD

This suggests the highest month-on-month rise for some time, though they do make the sensible point that the gulf between sellers expectations and what buyers are prepared to pay continues to widen.

As a potential FTB myself, this gulf became unbridgeable around 6 months ago, but it's still interesting watching just how far this bubble will stretch...

catkins

I totally sympathise. Being sarcastic about wanting a car is ridiculous. You don't need a Bentley whereas people do need somewhere to live. It's not as though renting is a cheaper option because it certainly isn't and once you start renting you can't afford to save for a house.

The thing that makes me so angry is that the government could do something about house prices and they don't bother. Do house prices keep rising so rapidly in other countries? They certainly don't in France where you have to pay capital gains tax on profits on houses.

Lemoncurd

As FTBs (sort of) we've sat back and waited since I sold my last house 5 years ago. Probably at the worst possible time we decided that it was just silly to hold out for a crash (even though we're still expecting it) we want to settle down in our own home and stay there long term. We've been saving all that time but also paying rent (I justified by saying that is was equivalent to mortgage interest payments while our savings and investments were our capital). It was getting to the stage where I thought we'd have saved enough to buy a house outright before there would be any drop in prices.
Last month we gave in and decided to buy, over 5 years we've had to spend over £60,000 in rent - that would have gone some way towards buying a house even if the prices did drop!! We've now found a bigger house, with an extra bedroom and extra bathroom with at current rates the same mortgage repayment as we were paying in rent. We plan to overpay each month in order to bring the mortage term down to around 10 years. If house prices do drop by say 20% that would be by the same amount we would have to spend in rent over 5 years.
If we'd done this 5 years ago the house would have cost a lot less and we would probably only have a few years left before we'd be mortgage free.