Priced out people: What % drop in house prices do you need?

Gorgeous_George

real1314 wrote: »

And what's all this "next step" stuff?

Both of the "questions" are actually directed at the cause of HPI - the desire to "move up" and the idea that a certain standard of house is "appropriate".

Despite the unfortunate terminology, there is a housing ladder for the majority of people. Most people start with a small house which soon proves inadequate so move to a larger property. With wage inflation, many can afford something a little classier and move to a nicer area. The system fails when the elderly are trapped in their large homes, after the kids have flown the nest, because the cash freed by downsizing is lost by the costs of moving.

As for the desire to move up being the cause of HPI :rotfl:

Nothing to do with BTLers this week then? Interest rates are the single most-important factor in HPI.

As for the %age required, people need to remember that higher IRs will be the cause of house price falls. So, when calculating the fall they need they should also acknowledge the increased cost of borrowing.



GG

pamaris

I think that the teachers here also understood what I meant by "commensurate with income"... Teachers make an adequate income and have historically been able to purchase adequate homes. The income is no longer adequate to purchase the same home that they would have been able to buy in the past.

The reason that we are priced out is that 5 years ago when we were a younger family (OH was 33 and I was 25, plus one infant) when we "should have" been buying a home we moved overseas (where we consecutively owned 2 2000+ square foot homes during that time!). We had no idea when we left that we would come back to this insanity. Life happens... think we'll just "make do" living with OH's mum in a small 3 bed semi saving our money till the tide turns in our favour.

Dithering_Dad

Running_Horse wrote: »

You don't want to know about some of the hovels us 6 kids shared. Maybe that's why I am contented with my modest but happy life. Maybe that's why I waited until I could provide a decent home before becoming a dad. Having kids before you could afford to provide separate bedrooms for them was your choice.

Blimming heck, you know nothing about pamaris, yet you've decided that s/he has recklessly decided to give birth to children born into poverty and misery.

Which is bizaare because in the same post you go on about your parents having 6 kids in a hovel. If your parents had followed your "wait until you can provide separate rooms for your kids, before having them", then you would not exist.

pamaris

Running_Horse wrote: »

You don't want to know about some of the hovels us 6 kids shared. Maybe that's why I am contented with my modest but happy life. Maybe that's why I waited until I could provide a decent home before becoming a dad. Having kids before you could afford to provide separate bedrooms for them was your choice.

Ugh when I had them we could afford separate bedrooms! The unaffordability has only happened very recently. Not sure how we could have predicted the current situation 5 years ago.

ETA: In fact in the present environment, one could afford to provide a "decent home for their kids" in November 2006 but not in August 2007!

pamaris

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Which is a valid argument but not really connected with what the OP posted. The OP stated as a deliberate caveat the words "appropriate for your family" and "commensurate with your income". I really can't see how much clearer s/he could have made the initial post. I'm not sure where the graduate or class discussion comes into this, though it would be an interesting debate, so why not create a new thread?

Exactly, class distinctions have nothing to do with the discussion.

HenryWeston

ukbondraider wrote: »

50%????

Get Real.

My Sister has just moved into her first house, a £400K 4 bed detached.

She has been amazed how chavvy her area is despite most houses there being £350-500K. Having visited her I saw what she meant. Depite the area looking nice it is so full of crime and anti social teens it is unbelievable.

In my opinion houses need to double and we need to start uilding council flats again.

Group the chavs together and let them kill themselves. But then again they will drive to the affluent areas every night and rob the big houses

:rotfl: does that tell you something ? :rotfl:

Guy_Montag

It's curious that (almost) everyone went for 20%, that (apart from that troublemaker Lynz) - 20% was the figure I was thinking of before I looked inside this thread. I wonder if prices dropped 20% we'd still be saying we'd be ok if only prices dropped 20%.

Generali

I'm not priced out as such - I could buy what I need but I'm not prepared to take the hit in lifestyle that buying a similar place to what I rent would entail.

It would take a change in price:net income ratio from about 4:1 to about 3:1 for it to be worth my while to buy. Either I get a pay rise (unlikely as I'm looking to stop contracting and go full time in a few months) or real house prices drop by about 25% or so. Or a combination of the 2.

nicola1982_2

TBH nothing - but to live in my dream area 5-10%! However I don't expect to get everything I want in a home. My intention is to rent until the child starts school (as the flexibility stops then - wouldn't want to move a child between schools), then I'll settle into a 2 bed terrace in my area and make do. My parents did it as did my grandparents.

I do think some people have to be prepared for the fact they may be priced out forever. My other gran never bought because she was from a low income family - that's just the way life is. Alot of us have seen the generation when the buying of council houses meant most people could afford to buy, but this hasn't always been the case and won't always be the case in the future.

ashm1

20% needed but it will be worse in what I want to buy (1 bed flat)

Cheap credit and loose lending has supported the market. Lack of supply (atleast of 1 bed flats) is distorted by lending practices.