Where can you afford to live in the UK?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Still ignoring the question I see graham....

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?

undetterred

Come on Grayham answer the question,or have you taken ur ball home.

rabbit_burrow

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

1) The average wage of people in the South is higher than the national average wage of 26K.

2) The average wage of homebuyers is higher than the average wage of all people, as the bottom earning 30% have never been able to afford to buy.

3) Your statement is false. The calculator shows a fair few places in "the South" if you select "cheaper end of the market" housing, including Swindon, Medway, Thale, Ashford, Thanet, Dover, Plymouth, Torbay, Dorset, Somerset, etc.

That's most likely a mean average rather than a mode average, so I wouldn't trust it is this circumstance.
I should think that if a modal average was used, the 'average' figure wouldn't be so high.

Most jobs (in Devon anyway) that don't require a specific qualification are NMW, the same as the rest of the country.

rabbit_burrow

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Why would it make you short tempered out of curisoty?

If you enter the low end of the market as the option, it will give you places, as Hamish found, in Plymouth.

I know where those places are, and personally would never buy a house there. I'm sure were all the same, and none of us would knowingly aspire to buy one of these places.

I'd rather spend more each month renting (by quite some way) than I would live in some of the much cheaper areas. They are cheaper for a reason.


Am I the only one? Would everyone else knowingly choose to buy for buying sake in one of these areas? Obviously if you are raised in such places your outlook may be different.

Or are we assuming everyone should hand over shed loads of cash to buy somewhere in an undesirable nieghbourhood? If they choose not to, should we feel angry that they avoid this choice?

This is the sort of stuff that many can afford in Devon, and it's the sort of stuff that calculator will look at.....



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).

if we just assume that places are affordable, then fine. But I do feel what you want comes into playm and mid range doesn't seem too outrageous?

Is that Newton Abbot, Graham?

rabbit_burrow

Ignore that, I have now looked through page 2 and can see that it is Plymouth (which was my second guess)

dktreesea

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Still ignoring the question I see graham....

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?

If the only choice were to buy, as opposed to rent, a house, then this might be a reasonable question. But people who can only afford to buy in cheap places because they are on a low income don't compare, say, a rent of £600 a month with a mortgage of, say, £500 a month and therefore determine it is better to buy. You are completely missing an important consideration - who is paying for the rent.

Say a person with a family, low income, was living in a mid market area, with the rent at, say, £750 a month, and say this is equivalent to the LHA for their circumstances/entitlements. Even if they had £15k in the bank (i.e. too low an amount to affect their benefits entitlements), why would they even consider buying? The m9ortgage would sent them back £500 a month. The rent might only set them back £200 a month by the time the housing benefit is taken into consideration.

Renting is not dead money. It's like mortgage interest - the price of shelter. I wouldn't live in the area Graham posted in Plymouth, or any one of the clones up here is Scotland, even if were all I could afford to buy. Renting enables everyone, including those on low incomes, to live in nice areas, for often quite low net rents due to the subsidies from other taxpayers.

fc123

lostinrates wrote: »

Ok, I generally feel that where peoe can afford to live is pretty limited, so went to the calculator with interest and saw the questions focused on what people 'wanted' to live in. It made me short tempered so I decided not to bother.

...DITTO....:)

I am now 50, have 'owned' since I was 26 and still don't live in the location in the amount of space I would like or have the view/outlook I would like .....that's life I guess.

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Why would it make you short tempered out of curisoty?

If you enter the low end of the market as the option, it will give you places, as Hamish found, in Plymouth.

I know where those places are, and personally would never buy a house there. I'm sure were all the same, and none of us would knowingly aspire to buy one of these places.

I'd rather spend more each month renting (by quite some way) than I would live in some of the much cheaper areas. They are cheaper for a reason.

Am I the only one? Would everyone else knowingly choose to buy for buying sake in one of these areas? Obviously if you are raised in such places your outlook may be different.

Or are we assuming everyone should hand over shed loads of cash to buy somewhere in an undesirable nieghbourhood? If they choose not to, should we feel angry that they avoid this choice?

This is the sort of stuff that many can afford in Devon, and it's the sort of stuff that calculator will look at.....



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).

if we just assume that places are affordable, then fine. But I do feel what you want comes into playm and mid range doesn't seem too outrageous?

Dear me Graham......this really attitude really affects how I read your other posts now...and I think you are a well-meaning kind of guy but no-one is entitled to anything in life and you can choose location over living space.
In the London suburbs people and families do it every day...do they have a small house in a not so nice area or a flat in one that is seen as 'better'?

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 '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.

Yes it does and there is a great value in getting along with all sorts of people...you should try it one day.
The downside of renting forever is you one day you will retire and will be at the mercy of private LL and whatever Govt policy is in place to help you with your rent (unless you have a fat private pension).

The other assumption is that you can only have a neighbour from hell if you live in those types of low cost areas...and this isn't true ....a NFH can be anywhere. I know of someone who has one at the moment (noise etc) and they live in a house valued at a million+.

Graham_Devon

fc123 wrote: »

Dear me Graham......this really attitude really affects how I read your other posts now...and I think you are a well-meaning kind of guy but no-one is entitled to anything in life and you can choose location over living space.
In the London suburbs people and families do it every day...do they have a small house in a not so nice area or a flat in one that is seen as 'better'?

Theres another poster who obviously knows the area well and has described it as it is.

I don't know what's so outrageous about stating I would rather pay more to rent somewhere else than choose to buy something from somewhere in the picture, considering how I and other posters have described it.

Should I instantly buy whatever I can afford? Or should I be able to choose to pay more to rent somewhere else?

To be fair I've not mentioned entitlements once, just stated I would rather pay more to live somewhere else. I don't see how that can be seen as thinking I'm entitled to something. I've merely accepted I'd have to pay more elsewhere.

Maybe you could explain how this means I feel I'm entitled to something?

Is this not something we have ALL done? Have we not ALL chose our locations and to pay the price for that said location?

People are making out it's somehow an issue to choose to rent somewhere as opposed to buying somewhere you simply do not want to live for various reasons. Theres enough people on this thread also stating they wouldn't live there, presumably because they know it. I'm baffled as to why people are so upset about this in all honesty or why it's caused so much fallout by saying I wouldn't want to live there. I don't, so why can't I say so without being labelled?

GwylimT

I'm pretending we don't own our flat although that is only possible due to inheritance. We can afford to rent in 5% of the UK mainly in Mid Wales (where we have just moved from) and the Newcastle Upon Tyne area. Without the inheritance we could afford to buy in 20% of the UK mainly in SW Scotland. With our equity on our property we can afford to buy in 62% of the UK, although it does say that we cannot afford to buy in the area we currently live and where we have recently bought a flat...

[Deleted User]

I am in my 30s and want to move out. The closest to my well above average paid job I can afford to live is about 200 miles, unless I want to live in a crime-infested slum where the ASBOrometer app goes off the scale.

I would like to start a family. A basic 2 bedroom rabbit hutch in a state of general disrepair would require me to save up at least £25k deposit and pay around £1300/month mortgage.

My choice is basically be ripped off by a landlord renting or give up my job, move north and leave everyone I know behind.