Where can you afford to live in the UK?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Why is 24K income required for a 600pm mortgage?

You should be able to do it on 18K or 20K, and that is definitely lower income for the top earning 70% of people who are house buyers.

But again, you're distracting from the point.....

So the market is allocating goods through price according to supply and demand.

If the people that can currently only afford to buy in the cheap areas could suddenly also afford to buy in the mid-price areas, what do you think would happen?

Do you think prices would rise until sufficient numbers were prices out that supply and demand equalised?

Or would we find some other way of allocating them?

Waiting lists or a lottery perhaps?

Graham_Devon

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Why is 24K income required for a 600pm mortgage?

You should be able to do it on 18K or 20K, and that is definitely lower income for the top earning 70% of people who are house buyers.

Why would no one lend to you on this basis then? That's 5x income.

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I may be a prude, but I wouldn't want to live there, not just on looks, but the crime figures are appuling, let alone spend my working life paying for it. (they are still around 100k).

I grew up on street that looked like that. My mum still lives there.

You, sir, are a snob.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Why would no one lend to you on this basis then? That's 5x income.

No it's not.

20K x 4 = 80K

+ 15K deposit

= 95K purchase price.

80K mortgage @ 5% = £473 per month. Easily affordable on 18K or 20K salary.

Mr._Pricklepants

lostinrates wrote: »

I have plenty of friends who lived in the exact replica of those houses is smart addresses in the south east who have gone to smart school and have smart jobs. So yes, I think you are perhaps being prudish, or at least self limiting.

Or a bloated sense of self-entitlement.

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Google image search says it's North Prospect aka Swilly in Plymouth.

Its name is still synonymous with economic depression and petty crime in Devon and Cornwall, though the widespread use of ASBOs and a new police station have gone some way to treat the minority who continue to foster the area's negative reputation.
Its reputation often belies the warm regard in which the estate is held by many of its residents, a significant number of whom grew up and continue to live on the estate. North Prospect provides decent homes for many families, is close to Plymouth city centre, and is generally leafy and quiet. North Prospect has given rise to a strong sense of community, and several agencies and associations (including the North Prospect Partnership) work hard to improve the estate.

(wikipedia)

Seems good enough for many.
Alas, not up to Graham's standards.

Lagoon

Mr._Pricklepants wrote: »

Or a bloated sense of self-entitlement.



Google image search says it's North Prospect aka Swilly in Plymouth.

(wikipedia)

Seems good enough for many.
Alas, not up to Graham's standards.

As I say, I don't agree that people should be entitled to live anywhere in the country. However, I do agree with Graham that I would continue renting over choosing somewhere like that.

I'm not going to deny that all of the 'low class' areas I've known have had a GREAT sense of community. Sadly, those 'communities' are built on crime and anti-social behaviour. They all get on very well with one another, because they all have similar morality and a similar lifestyle.

'several agencies and associations (including the North Prospect Partnership) work hard to improve the estate' says to me 'it's not a safe place, which is WHY people are working hard to improve it'.

I don't think I have a sense of entitlement, but I agree that I'll continue to pay more rent than to move somewhere like that. If that makes me a snob, so be it.

lostinrates

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Fair enough. If you are calling me a prude for not wanting to BUY a house and bring up my family in an area with the highest crime in Devon, what can I say? Nothing much, apart from accept your thoughts.

I don't think I'm the odd one out here though.

Ok, but you have the choice. Buy there, or move elsewhere. Or do something else altogether as a stepping stone to buying what you want in the area you want. Or don't have a family of you really feel the outlook is so bleak, why wish it on your son?

I'm not arguing its desirable. I'm arguing its silly to argue that ' beggars should be choosers', which is how the thing on the bbc site is leading it, or how it feels to me.

how does the crime rate compares with other uk areas? Showing a picture of a big standard council house I am afraid wins no sympathy from me as to the horrors. I've been in beautifully cared for such homes, much larger than many modern city homes, and have known good people well brought up in them, and tend to think that a picture posted in order to lead one down the alley of ' goodness how awful' is a foolish one, IMO.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

This is what under 100K will buy you in Plymouth.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42309476.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37115878.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37336564.html

They need redecorating, but other than that look reasonable enough for people on lower incomes to take as a first place, and improve over time.

Graham_Devon

lostinrates wrote: »

Ok, but you have the choice. Buy there, or move elsewhere. Or do something else altogether as a stepping stone to buying what you want in the area you want. Or don't have a family of you really feel the outlook is so bleak, why wish it on your son?

I'm not arguing its desirable. I'm arguing its silly to argue that ' beggars should be choosers', which is how the thing on the bbc site is leading it, or how it feels to me.

how does the crime rate compares with other uk areas? Showing a picture of a big standard council house I am afraid wins no sympathy from me as to the horrors. I've been in beautifully cared for such homes, much larger than many modern city homes, and have known good people well brought up in them, and tend to think that a picture posted in order to lead one down the alley of ' goodness how awful' is a foolish one, IMO.

I posted it because a lot of it is being knocked down, redeveloped etc.

This is what is happening to them...(as in this is a real picture from a street close to it).



The area hhas even been renamed in order to try and remove it's reputation.

Sure, the picture itself doesn' t say much.

I don't care for your assumptions about me to be honest as it's just set off a barrage.

Sure, posting the picture was probably wrong. I grew up in an ex council place myself. But it's not the houses. You can easily tell there is little care going on there. Hence half of it's been or being knocked down. "Swilly" as pricklepants announced is no longer, it was renamed due to the association with crime, drugs, gangs and violence. As I say, if you feel I'm a prude for not wanting to live with that and have started making insinuations about how I care for my son, then fine, but why you have done this I don't know.

I started thinking this calculator was just an interesting link. The way it's gone however I wish I never started it.

lostinrates

Lagoon wrote: »

As I say, I don't agree that people should be entitled to live anywhere in the country. However, I do agree with Graham that I would continue renting over choosing somewhere like that.

I'm not going to deny that all of the 'low class' areas I've known have had a GREAT sense of community. Sadly, those 'chommunities' are built on crime and anti-social behaviour. They all get on very well with one another, because they all have similar morality and a similar lifestyle.

'several agencies and associations (including the North Prospect Partnership) work hard to improve the estate' says to me 'it's not a safe place, which is WHY people are working hard to improve it'.

I don't think I have a sense of entitlement, but I agree that I'll continue to pay more rent than to move somewhere like that. If that makes me a snob, so be it.

But it's a choice to rent, and not the only one possible.

I'd be living near where there was employment and opportunity for me/ my family.

The kind of 'snobs' I knew took the choice to spend less oho using and live in places 'like that' while making sacrifices to get their kids into schools they couldn't afford if they rented somewhere expensive or bought somewhere else. ( although the friend I am closest to whose parents did this later sold the ex council house and bought a very nice home in collaboration with one set of in laws when the kids had grown up. )

Who is to say one choice is right or wrong? Even a measure of success is difficult because wealth creation is not the only success.