Are houses unaffordable?

theEnd

My parents bought their house back in the early 70s for £7k. They said it was nothing. A noticeable expense, but tiny compared to other living costs (food, bills etc).

He was a builder and we were comfortable, but fairly poor.

House now worth over 1.5m.

angela110660

When we first married we bought a flat, a few years later we moved to an old 2 bed terraced, another few years - a 3 bed semi and for the last 22 years we have lived in a bungalow. We have been lucky each time we moved that we made a bit of a profit and the property we now own had to have tonz of work done over time but it would now be worth if sold, probably 4 times what we paid for it! Eeeeek.
But, were we to sell and to buy another house in our area - we probably would still have to take out some mortgage as the prices seem to jump weekly and the agents/builders seem to pick numbers out of the air when pricing places.
Our grown up kids cannot aspire to own even a flat around here despite having good jobs as most of the small places seem to be sold to BTL landlords. The rents being charged for 1 or even 2 bed flats would not leave enough money to be able to save for deposits either. What can they do? apart from going on the social housing waiting lists and waiting eons for a place to come up.
I suppose if they wanted to move north, earn similar wages as in their current jobs but pay vastly less per month for rent = then they might be able to save up a deposit. Funny that but can't see it happening.

ukcarper

theEnd wrote: »

My parents bought their house back in the early 70s for £7k. They said it was nothing. A noticeable expense, but tiny compared to other living costs (food, bills etc).

He was a builder and we were comfortable, but fairly poor.

House now worth over 1.5m.

Funny that I bought my first house in 1972 it certainly wasn't nothing my mortgage payments were 40% of my take home pay, that house is now worth £300k tops.

Nationwide figures average house price in South East 1972 £10.9k, q4 2015 £251.3k.

Things are definitely harder now don't know why people have exaggerate so much.

iantojones40

I'm really struggling to understand what is happening in my part of the UK (Derbyshire, Tameside, West Yorkshire) prices have only risen modestly since 2008 and according to LR figures are still below their pre-crash highs and we now have the lowest interest rates ever, so this should mean prices are affordable.... and yet the numbers of properties on the market in my location have fell by around 40% in the last 12 months.

Why would this be?

Kim_kim

dirty_magic wrote: »

I think it depends on the area. London and the south east are unaffordable for many. OH and I don't have huge salaries and we've bought so it's not unaffordable everywhere.

I do think it's more difficult than it used to be though, and I'm glad we bought when we did because it's only going to get worse if property continues to rise, especially if the interest rate goes up.

Our neighbours sold theirs almost exactly a year from when we bought ours and they've sold it for 7k more. Our wages haven't increased by 7k! A while before we moved similar houses around here were selling for around 5k less than we paid.

One of my daughters friends has just had to move up north as her & her husband (both in decent jobs) could not afford a small 3 bed house in the SE for them & their two children.
Her family are from the north so they are upping sticks & moving back up there. They've been living with his family trying to get on the property ladder for a couple of years, but that small house just gets further & further out of reach.

Ordinarily working people should be able to afford an ordinary house & in much of the SE that's not possible.
Single people have no chance & it's not always possible to have a partner to buy with, ordinary working people should be able to afford a small home on one ordinary salary.

SG27

ukcarper wrote: »

Funny that I bought my first house in 1972 it certainly wasn't nothing my mortgage payments were 40% of my take home pay, that house is now worth £300k tops.

Nationwide figures average house price in South East 1972 £10.9k, q4 2015 £251.3k.

Things are definitely harder now don't know why people have exaggerate so much.

If have a friend in a two bed flat whose mortgage is 75% of his take home pay. His partner works too but if either of them lost thier jobs they would have massive problems!

ukcarper

SG27 wrote: »

If have a friend in a two bed flat whose mortgage is 75% of his take home pay. His partner works too but if either of them lost thier jobs they would have massive problems!

That's a high percentage if I was to buy the house I bought in 1972 now my mortgage would be 60% of my take home pay. The mortgage would be 5.5x joint income.

theEnd

ukcarper wrote: »

Funny that I bought my first house in 1972 it certainly wasn't nothing my mortgage payments were 40% of my take home pay, that house is now worth £300k tops.

Nationwide figures average house price in South East 1972 £10.9k, q4 2015 £251.3k.

Things are definitely harder now don't know why people have exaggerate so much.

My numbers are completely true.

Nice, but then unfashionable part of outer central London.
If you looked at somewhere like Notting Hill Gate, the increases would be even larger.

My dad worked hard, but never made much. I remember when the mortgage was paid off (prob mid-90s), the monthly payment was somewhere around £20-30.

adsk

teddysmum wrote: »

Aged 23,we bought a new three bed semi in 1972, but had very little furniture. There was a bed, two piece suite with only the the sofa usable, as the chair had a damaged leg (loaned by the upholstery seller, as the new suite was on very slow order and came 3 months later), cooker (cheap as husband worked for a manufacturer) and my parents' old table and chairs (the sideboard had to be scrapped). Cookware, cutlery and cheap Pyrex tableware were wedding presents. The curtains were made by me from fabric off-cuts, bought from a relative's market stall.

A year on,we bought a wardrobe, were given an old fridge whose freezer compartment didn't work and m-i-l rented a black and white tv for us. We also had a gas fire fitted, instead of the coal fire,which had meant cold mornings when getting ready for work,as we couldn't leave it burning while out.

We didn't have a phone until 1980 and ran an old Fiat 124 (We were lucky to work in the same area, but not on a bus route, so I had to arrive at work early and wait an hour afterwards, to be taken home.)

You're missing the point - you could afford to buy the house.

ukcarper

theEnd wrote: »

My numbers are completely true.

Nice, but then unfashionable part of outer central London.
If you looked at somewhere like Notting Hill Gate, the increases would be even larger.

My dad worked hard, but never made much. I remember when the mortgage was paid off (prob mid-90s), the monthly payment was somewhere around £20-30.

Yes it easy to find exceptions to rule but that is far from typical.