"Generation rent" - did ppl really marry in their 20s and buy a house?

[Deleted User]

lisyloo wrote: »

That would be pretty impossible now I would think, unless you are looking at total extremes i.e. highest salaried graduate in pretty dire housing.

There's hints of parental assistance here.. what with the daughter buying a house prior to working and being able to save a deposit

I would have struggled to buy my first home without my parents help.

ukcarper

The average age of first marriage has increased from 24 to 31 for woman and 25 to 36 for men between 1970 and 2009 (ons) this must have an effect on when people buy.

I personally got married and bought at the age of 22

lisyloo

this must have an effect on when people buy

For me it didn't so I'm not sure why you would reach that conclusion.
I bought in 1991 with my partner but didn't get married until 1998 (the same partner :-)

You seem to have concluded that people have "coupled" later in life, whereas I would conclude that not everyone feels marriage is necessary anymore.

I was going to say though that some things have changed for women (depending on how far you go back).
a) There are more equal numbers of women in university (my mum is 70 but never got to uni because of gender).
b) More women go back to work these days that stay in full time childcare.
c) It's not that long ago that women couldn't get a mortgage (60's ?).

Depends how far you go back of course, but one of the reasons house prices are higher now is that generally they are based on two incomes and not one.

"Social norms" have very definitely changed - depending of course how far you are going back.

I consider myself very lucky to be young enough to have had equal opportunities but old enough for a free university education and affordable hosuing (not a boomer but generation X).

Torry_Quine

We both stayed at home until we married in our 20s. As we both are working class and had been brought up in council housing that was our obvious first thought but discovered that this wasn't going to happen. Buying then became a necessity and we purchased a flat using savings from working since we'd left school at 17. Our wedding was also paid for out of savings. Neither of us went to university.

ukcarper

lisyloo wrote: »

For me it didn't so I'm not sure why you would reach that conclusion.
I bought in 1991 with my partner but didn't get married until 1998 (the same partner :-)

You seem to have concluded that people have "coupled" later in life, whereas I would conclude that not everyone feels marriage is necessary anymore.

Possibly so but as people are also buying later I think it will have an effect but there are many other factors. When I bought back in the seventies the majority of people had been in work 5 to 6 years at the age of 22 where now many are just entering work.

I do think people do couple as you put it later in life not as much as the marriage figure suggest but later never the less.

Percy1983

I do find it interesting that many of my parents generation were married in there early 20s, I shudder to think how bad my life would now be I was still with my girlfriend from my early 20s.

More interestingly I would say I met my now wife at a time where I had figured myself out and I haven't really changed since then, I was much less stable in my early 20s.

lisyloo

When I bought back in the seventies the majority of people had been in work 5 to 6 years at the age of 22 where now many are just entering work.

Yes - another social norm that has changed.
You have to now stay in school/education/training until 18 and 50% go to uni until 21/22.
Plenty of people left school at 16 when I was young.

the_flying_pig

it's much, much, better to focus on averages rather than individual anecdotes, which are inevitably clouded by the atypical, e.g. considering three generations of my dad's family:

(a) my dad's parents - lived rurally, as a farm labourer and housewife U][COLOR=black]atypical[/COLOR][/U and until i think middle aged lived in some kind of quite basic housing provided by the employer, when they retired i think they'd have been turfed out but instead went to live with my dad's brother who'd never married U]atypical[/U.

(b) my dad & his siblings [aside from the above]:

older sister never married U]atypical[/U], certainly for someone born in the 1940s] but as a single woman was nonetheless able to get a mortgage [[U]atypical[/U and i think owned a house from the age of about say 19, having left school at say 14 & lived with her parents for a while.

middle sister married someone who was in the forces for a while & moved around a lot U]atypical[/U, they ended up with a modestly high income U]atypical[/U and bought for the first time in i suppose their early 30s

my dad - left school at 14, did unskilled work, married at say 21, i believe bought straight after or certainly by about 23.

(c) my generation

me - went to university U]atypical[/U] for someone born in mid 70s], lived in fairly London [[U]atypica[/U]l], had a well-paid graduate job [[U]atypical[/U, bought with a partner [though unmarried] at say 26.

my brother #1 - in early 30s, has a fairly low paid job U]atypical[/U, never bought but eventually moved in with someone who had a fairly good job U]atypical[/U & well off parents U]atypical[/U who did own.

my brother #2 - never able to work due to health problems U]atypical[/U consequently never owner

the point is that the average has undeniably changed over time.

BJV

This always gets my goat and hate to say it but I most likely did the same to my parents.


Things are no different, well at least from what I can see. I met my OH when I was 21. We married when we where 30. early 2000.


We bought our first house in 1996. The deposit we needed was £4000. My yearly wage was £10000. We saved, scrimped, no mobile phones, no new clothes, no nights out, no holidays for four years and finally we got it.


My niece was moaning just the other day, stating that it was impossible to have enough for a deposit for a house. This was as she was getting ready to go out, pick up her friends in her car, with her new iphone.


I really think that every generation thinks that theirs is worse off.

N1AK

BJV wrote: »

We bought our first house in 1996. The deposit we needed was £4000. My yearly wage was £10000. We saved, scrimped, no mobile phones, no new clothes, no nights out, no holidays for four years and finally we got it.


My niece was moaning just the other day, stating that it was impossible to have enough for a deposit for a house. This was as she was getting ready to go out, pick up her friends in her car, with her new iphone.

I really think that every generation thinks that theirs is worse off.

You needed 40% of a single years wage for a home and you think you had it hard!? The average deposit last Jan was around £31k, well over 100% of the average wage...

The old 'youngsters with their new phones' meme just makes people look outdated. Every generation will have had comparative luxuries from the perspective of prior generations, be those luxuries indoor toilets, clothes that weren't made by mum or a mobile phone; having a couple of them doesn't make someone frivolous.