Where Can You Afford to Buy a House? Interactive Map

lisa110rry

"My boomer mother sat on plastic furniture and ate tins of beans in her house in the mid to late 70's to afford to buy, she had no phone, no TV, no mobile phone, she would have dreamed of going on a weeks half board, her idea of a holiday was a day trip to the beach."

This is the quote for me. We had second-hand everything (well everything we had that is, we had no washing machine, no telly, in fact for a good while we had no Hoover and I swept the carpets with a broom). This was in 1977 and our home was a semi-detached ex-council home.

Fast forward to 1986 and we had a bit of debt (£3000:eek:). I am so debt averse that whilst my husband was working away from home and staying in a hotel aand our young son was fed proper balanced meals, I subsisted on beans on toast until that debt was gone.

Now, in 2015, there is no debt, no mortgage, and, whilst I have two cars, they are 13 and 16 years old.

From time to time I remind my husband that when we started out at 21 and 30 years of age, in 1977, we had a "D" reg 1966 grey Mini Clubman which constantly had brake master cylinder problems. Now we have a car each (and I have a spare convertible for summer, lol), we live in a beautiful, if old-fashioned, home.

Having put my salary into that system, I find that the median house in my post code is 3.7 times my salary (my husband is retired, so only my salary). If I put in the average wage, the red shading is significant and if I use the minimum wage all of Brtiain becomes red!

Can anyone tell me what the usual multiplier for mortgageability is? I've lived in the same house for 28 years...

ukcarper

danothy wrote: »

It shows an area as unaffordable if 50% or more of the properties sold in it in a given year went for more than four times your salary. The "mix" of properties in an area might mean that there's a really cheap property in an otherwise expensive area that is within reach, but if you want to know which areas you could afford the cheapest property in all you have to do is look at the distributions. I think it's fair to say that being able to afford the cheapest property in an area isn't exactly the same as being able to afford to live there generally though, so as I said, the 50% threshold is as good as any other in that respect.

I agree that it tells you weather you can afford to buy the median house but in respect to affordability its not useful. I've been looking at bungalows looking where I live a decent 2 bed bungalow is £300k I also looked at Selsey in Sussex where a similar bungalows are £240k but according to map is less affordable .

mystic_trev

lisa110rry wrote: »

our home was a semi-detached ex-council home.

You were lucky, we used to dream about living in a Council House...

We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING!

http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/monty-python-four-yorkshiremen.html

lisa110rry

Hahaha, Trev! "Our hole in the road was deeper than your hole in the road" used to be one of my catchphrases when others in my family would say how much tougher they had it than me.

edit: It was a very well-built former council property and we were very pleased to live in it, though the purchase price of £11,200 less 10% deposit was hard at times to re-pay at 15% interest!

wotsthat

This map works for me. The only places I can't afford are the ones I don't want to live in.

societys_child

ruggedtoast wrote: »

This just serves to show what a complete lotto win housing has been for the favoured generation.

I am on holiday in Europe at the moment.

Lucky you.
I bought a very run down house when I was 20 and had paid it off before I even dreamt of a foreign holiday. We went camping, you know, in a field, East coast or if we really splashed out, we got as far as South Wales for a week of luxury.

I tell you, it just makes me so angry to see boomers and euro boomers living it up in Club Med all inclusive while hard working Gen X families have to fight with booking.com to afford a weeks half board 3 star in Torremelinos, eating the dolmades of resentment from the rude supermarket, on plastic furniture every evening.

Never had a Club Med and only ever had one all-inclusive in my life (a cheap out of season deal in Benidorm - it even snowed while we were there) and that wasn't until I'd paid my house off!

Then by the time the boomers charter flight has landed they've made another ten grand on their houses. It's so unfair.

Aww, poor you . . . get a grip for goodness sake.

danothy

ukcarper wrote: »

I agree that it tells you weather you can afford to buy the median house but in respect to affordability its not useful. I've been looking at bungalows looking where I live a decent 2 bed bungalow is £300k I also looked at Selsey in Sussex where a similar bungalows are £240k but according to map is less affordable .

That's because it is less affordable. An area is defined on that map as affordable if 50% of the properties are within four times your salary, not 50% of the bungalows.

ukcarper

danothy wrote: »

That's because it is less affordable. An area is defined on that map as affordable if 50% of the properties are within four times your salary, not 50% of the bungalows.

I know what the map defines as affordable but a different mix of properties will mean that the median house in one area could be a detached house while in another it could be terrace.

danothy

ukcarper wrote: »

I know what the map defines as affordable but a different mix of properties will mean that the median house in one area could be a detached house while in another it could be terrace.

Indeed, and in one area you may be able to afford 50% or more of the properties, be them detached or terraced, but in another area less than 50% of the properties may be within your reach, be them bungalow or flats, and hence the latter area is less affordable to you, because you can afford fewer of the properties.

ukcarper

danothy wrote: »

Indeed, and in one area you may be able to afford 50% or more of the properties, be them detached or terraced, but in another area less than 50% of the properties may be within your reach, be them bungalow or flats, and hence the latter area is less affordable to you, because you can afford fewer of the properties.

True but pretty meaningless