Journeys up the property ladder: ‘I know that I am just so lucky’

thequant

We had been married for two years before we bought our first home. We’d saved the £1,000 deposit ourselves. Chris had a good salary in the merchant navy so couldn’t spend much while away at sea. I already had £500 behind me. Don’t ask me how, as I was only earning £10 a week. We were groomed to be careful as in the 50s things were really tight. We had secondhand furniture. When you turned on our first TV, it was snowy so you banged it on the top and got a picture. You just grew and did things gradually. That attitude has served us well.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/aug/11/journeys-up-the-property-ladder-i-know-that-i-am-just-so-lucky

mystic_trev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

danothy

thequant wrote: »

We had been married for two years before we bought our first home. We’d saved the £1,000 deposit ourselves. Chris had a good salary in the merchant navy so couldn’t spend much while away at sea. I already had £500 behind me. Don’t ask me how, as I was only earning £10 a week. We were groomed to be careful as in the 50s things were really tight. We had secondhand furniture. When you turned on our first TV, it was snowy so you banged it on the top and got a picture. You just grew and did things gradually. That attitude has served us well.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/aug/11/journeys-up-the-property-ladder-i-know-that-i-am-just-so-lucky

If I'm reading this correctly, one of these people was on a "good" wage that they couldn't really spend even if they'd wanted to, and the other somehow magicked up an entire year's gross income. Sounds tight as hell to me, them fifties.

Carl31

so, deposit required £1k

Salary of wife £5200pa

Deposit = 19.2% of single, annual, salary

Compared to now? first time buyer house c200k? 10% deposit = £20k, what does the average FTB earn? £20k? so 100% of annual salary

yes, was the same back then it seems

danothy

Carl31 wrote: »

so, deposit required £1k

Salary of wife £5200pa

Deposit = 19.2% of single, annual, salary

Compared to now? first time buyer house c200k? 10% deposit = £20k, what does the average FTB earn? £20k? so 100% of annual salary

yes, was the same back then it seems

I think you're off by an order of magnitude.

Carl31

danothy wrote: »

I think you're off by an order of magnitude.

fair enough, only estimating

Looking on rightmove, you can actually get a 3 bed house for about £110k in folkestone, so 10% deposit is £11k

so minimum wage is £6.70 an hour x 37.5 x 52 weeks is £13,065, assuming they earn the bare minumum

= 84% of a single salary, compared to 19.2% back then

yes, exactly the same, why people moan these days, if only they didn't buy iphones

danothy

Carl31 wrote: »

fair enough, only estimating

Looking on rightmove, you can actually get a 3 bed house for about £110k in folkestone, so 10% deposit is £11k

so minimum wage is £6.70 an hour x 37.5 x 52 weeks is £13,065, assuming they earn the bare minumum

= 84% of a single salary, compared to 19.2% back then

yes, exactly the same, why people moan these days, if only they didn't buy iphones

Again, you're off by an order of magnitude.

PasturesNew

So: Marry well.
That's the message.
Marry somebody who earns a LOT more than you do, then fool yourself that you did something clever

Carl31

danothy wrote: »

Again, you're off by an order of magnitude.

Ok, can you give an example? just trying to compare like for like

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Carl31 wrote: »

so, deposit required £1k

Salary of wife [STRIKE]£5200pa[/STRIKE] £520pa

Fixed that for you...;)

Deposit = [STRIKE]19.2%[/STRIKE] 192% of single, annual, salary

Fixed that for you as well.

Compared to now? first time buyer house c200k? 10% deposit = £20k, what does the average FTB earn? £20k? so 100% of annual salary

yes, was the same back then it seems

You're not even close....

Average FTB house 153K
Average FTB loan 128K
Average FTB deposit 25K

But...

Average FTB income 39K.

GunJack

£1000 in the fifties could quite possibly have bought 2 houses in most areas.....