Youngsters cannot afford to buy a home?

bigfreddiel

I don't believe this is true!

When I was a youngster just starting out it was just as hard and here's what it was like.

Pay £120/month
Interest rate 10% and more peaked at 15+%

Bought a terraced house 2up 1down, no ch, no garden, miles from work.

Al my pay went on mortgage, rates water electricity and food, not much left over for entertainment, meals out and so om

Fast forward to now, kids want it all, new house, new furniture, near to work and so on. Must have an iPhone, Netflix, sky TV, new car, house with wow factor.

We'll you need to prioritise, is keeping your FB status up to date, your opinion via twitter more important than buying your own home more important? Is driving a new car and having Netflix so important?

We'll if yes don't moan you can't afford a house.

Right now you have it so easy, lowest interest rates ever, help to buy schemes, 20% discount all paid for you by the taxpayer - basically youngsters have never had it so good

My advice, dump the gadgets, dump the new car, dump the wow factor house, get what you can afford in an affordable area, make some sacrifices, buy second hand stuff, save

Cheers fj

bbk87

In my opinion, that is a very simplistic way to look at it. I don't think it is just about people having 'gadgets'. I think there are many variables which contribute to whether a 'youngster' can afford to buy or not, the biggest one being where in the country you are.

I live in Greater London, it's expensive just to rent, let alone buy. We can only afford to buy a shared ownership property in this area. But saving for a deposit whilst paying stupid amounts for rent is not easy by any means.

Although I could potentially transfer by job up north, it wouldn't be that easy for the OH, so there is also jobs to consider. I don't think it is as easy as scrimping and scraping along so you can buy a property.

The help to buy schemes are quite restrictive. The general one ends next year, those who are still saving for a deposit that won't have one saved in time will lose out. The other help to buy scheme is for new builds only, which are far more expensive than existing. Therefore meaning they have to save even more than previously.

connors07

Solid generalisation OP.

SavingPennies_2

Yes but when interest rates where 15% houses were relatively cheaper than now compared to wages. So back then an average house might price might be 3 or 4 times one persons (usually the husbands) average salary, whereas now an average house might be 3 or 4 times two peoples average salary. In other words house prices have risen much more, relatively speaking, than salaries had. Your 15% back then was about the same as a FTB paying 4 or 5% now.

So you paid £120 a month when you bought your first house, my mortgage a couple years ago was nearly 10 times that, but I would bet that my salary was not 10 times what you earned back then.

Ma77hew

bigfreddiel wrote: »

I don't believe this is true!

When I was a youngster just starting out it was just as hard and here's what it was like.

Pay £120/month
Interest rate 10% and more peaked at 15+%

Bought a terraced house 2up 1down, no ch, no garden, miles from work.

Al my pay went on mortgage, rates water electricity and food, not much left over for entertainment, meals out and so om

Fast forward to now, kids want it all, new house, new furniture, near to work and so on. Must have an iPhone, Netflix, sky TV, new car, house with wow factor.

We'll you need to prioritise, is keeping your FB status up to date, your opinion via twitter more important than buying your own home more important? Is driving a new car and having Netflix so important?

We'll if yes don't moan you can't afford a house.

Right now you have it so easy, lowest interest rates ever, help to buy schemes, 20% discount all paid for you by the taxpayer - basically youngsters have never had it so good

My advice, dump the gadgets, dump the new car, dump the wow factor house, get what you can afford in an affordable area, make some sacrifices, buy second hand stuff, save

Cheers fj

My Dad has the same argument, because everything is relative apparently.

Though:
Average salary 1980 = £6,000
Average house price 1980 = £23,000
3.8 Ratio Salary to house in 1980

Average salary 2014 = £26,500
Average house price 2014 = £179,492
6.8 Ratio Salary to house in 2014

The younger generations, have relatively been screwed :beer:.

ognum

bigfreddiel wrote: »

I don't believe this is true!

When I was a youngster just starting out it was just as hard and here's what it was like.

Pay £120/month
Interest rate 10% and more peaked at 15+%

Bought a terraced house 2up 1down, no ch, no garden, miles from work.

Al my pay went on mortgage, rates water electricity and food, not much left over for entertainment, meals out and so om

Fast forward to now, kids want it all, new house, new furniture, near to work and so on. Must have an iPhone, Netflix, sky TV, new car, house with wow factor.

We'll you need to prioritise, is keeping your FB status up to date, your opinion via twitter more important than buying your own home more important? Is driving a new car and having Netflix so important?

We'll if yes don't moan you can't afford a house.

Right now you have it so easy, lowest interest rates ever, help to buy schemes, 20% discount all paid for you by the taxpayer - basically youngsters have never had it so good

My advice, dump the gadgets, dump the new car, dump the wow factor house, get what you can afford in an affordable area, make some sacrifices, buy second hand stuff, save

Cheers fj

OP you don't say how old you are or how long ago this was? Are you a boomer claiming you had it hard when actually you had a lot of benefits that young people today do not?

Callie22

bigfreddiel wrote: »

Fast forward to now, kids want it all, new house, new furniture, near to work and so on. Must have an iPhone, Netflix, sky TV, new car, house with wow factor.

We'll you need to prioritise, is keeping your FB status up to date, your opinion via twitter more important than buying your own home more important? Is driving a new car and having Netflix so important?

I don't have an iPhone. We do have Netflix (£6 per month) but then we only watch online so we save £15 a month on a tv licence. Our house was built in 1962. The only item of 'new' furniture that we've ever bought was our bed, which we bought from IKEA ten years ago. We don't have sky. Our car is second-hand. I'll admit that we bought a house that was near to my work, but we're hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of miles away from my OH's work and we both live hundreds of miles from where we were brought up as we can't afford to live there. OH and I have never taken a holiday together and we're unlikely to do so in the forseeable future as we're focusing on overpaying our mortgage as much as possible. Our house does not have a 'wow' factor, unless you're wowed by a forty year old very tatty kitchen and avocado bathroom, half a dozen different styles of wallpaper, smoked glass, shag pile carpets and carpets with holes in them. However, our mortgage is less than our rent and we're working on hammering it down as soon as possible.

But way to go with the generalisations. Perhaps that's how you've brought your kids up to behave, but that's not my experience or the experience of anyone that I know.

Annisele

I rent in London, and there's no way I could afford to buy the (modest) flat I'm living in. The flat is worth about 9 times my salary. I've saved a deposit of just over 1.5 times my salary - but I'm never going to be able to get a mortgage for the other 7.5 times.

I don't have an iPhone, or Netflix, or Sky, or any kind of car at all. Some of my furniture is new, and some of it is older than I am (not antique, just old). I don't have any debts, and I don't claim any benefits.

Certainly I could move up North. In some areas, I could almost buy a house outright with my savings - but my life is here.

I'd very much like to buy a house, but it's simply not going to happen. Failing that, I'd like a tenancy agreement where the landlord has to have a reason to evict me - but that's not going to happen either. One of those old fashioned secure council tenancies would be absolutely wonderful, but I earn far too much to have one of those*.

So, I think the housing market is broken. You think I have an overinflated sense of entitlement. I think that might be the definition of "generation gap".

*Edit - I know I could go on the list, but as a healthy adult without children who can afford to live in the private sector there's very little point.

System

Depends where you live. In Scotland, you could get a great small flat for £80k

I feel sorry anyone who lives in London, the cost of a steak is the same as a small house deposit up North. The place is terrible value for money, I would form there if I lived there!

Linton

Ma77hew wrote: »

My Dad has the same argument, because everything is relative apparently.

Though:
Average salary 1980 = £6,000
Average house price 1980 = £23,000
3.8 Ratio Salary to house in 1980

Average salary 2014 = £26,500
Average house price 2014 = £179,492
6.8 Ratio Salary to house in 2014

The younger generations, have relatively been screwed :beer:.

First time buyers dont buy average houses, they buy cheap houses.

Houses are mostly priced to be bought by families. Many years ago the man was the breadwinner whereas the wife, if she worked, quite often just took on a minimal part time job. The maximum mortgage was tied mostly to the man's wage. Usually people didnt buy houses until they married.

jayson043

bigfreddiel wrote: »

I don't believe this is true!

When I was a youngster just starting out it was just as hard and here's what it was like.

Pay £120/month
Interest rate 10% and more peaked at 15+%

Bought a terraced house 2up 1down, no ch, no garden, miles from work.

Al my pay went on mortgage, rates water electricity and food, not much left over for entertainment, meals out and so om

Fast forward to now, kids want it all, new house, new furniture, near to work and so on. Must have an iPhone, Netflix, sky TV, new car, house with wow factor.

We'll you need to prioritise, is keeping your FB status up to date, your opinion via twitter more important than buying your own home more important? Is driving a new car and having Netflix so important?

We'll if yes don't moan you can't afford a house.

Right now you have it so easy, lowest interest rates ever, help to buy schemes, 20% discount all paid for you by the taxpayer - basically youngsters have never had it so good

My advice, dump the gadgets, dump the new car, dump the wow factor house, get what you can afford in an affordable area, make some sacrifices, buy second hand stuff, save

Cheers fj

Following your logic, you had the better deal buying your house for £25,000 vs the £250,000 average price today. Sounds like you had it easy.