Debate House Prices


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It's as easy to buy a house now as it ever was!

245

Comments

  • SailorSam
    SailorSam Posts: 22,754 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    ruperts wrote: »
    Not looking for sympathy, it would just be nice if occasionally the lucky generation weren't always so sanctimonious about how they've become wealthy when evidently most of it comes from taking in one way or another from their children's generation. Just admit you've done well as a generation at taking everything you can get your hands on for yourselves and leaving nothing for anyone else and we can all be friends.

    Morning Rupert,
    I think i'm very lucky. I paid £6.5k for my first house. But i couldn't just walk into it and have a house warming party that weekend, it needed a lot of work but at that time it was all i could afford. I couldn't afford to get people in to do the work i had to do it myself, but i didn't know how, So did evening classes , painting & decorating; electrics; plumbing; bricklaying and lots more. I've been amazed since joining Mse to see the number of threads asking for advice 'cos they've got a new house and hardly know how to change a lightbulb.
    I'm very jealous of many young people today, they have so much, world travel compared to when i went camping in Nth Wales or the Lakes. When i was young my phone was in a red box on the corner of the street.
    When the Op started the thread he was trying to ask, how can someone who says they can't afford a home, spend so much on what appear to be luxuries. Not all, but many young people don't want to start with old secondhand things and repair things themselves. It starts in school were the kids have to be seen wearing clothes with the right labels.
    I'm not asking for sympathy for not having the right clothes and travel, i chose to give a lot of them up and am now seeing the benefit. I've given lots, a very lot to my family because i don't want to see them having to start their lives as i did.
    Liverpool is one of the wonders of Britain,
    What it may grow to in time, I know not what.

    Daniel Defoe: 1725.
  • Carl31
    Carl31 Posts: 2,616 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    ruperts wrote: »
    Yeah and when you were a lad you were given one lump of coal and that had to keep you entertained, fed and watered for the whole week right?


    Jesus, is there anything more patronising than being preached at by some baby boomer home owner? Your generation was the first to know no real hardship, don't pretend like you've been through hell and deserve respect, you haven't. You're just a bunch of wage slaves who lucked out buying homes when they were cheap and have got wealthy on the back of stealing from your kids.


    The fact is that house prices relative to salaries are much, much more expensive now than they were 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago and that doesn't even take into account that most houses are now shoeboxes barely fit for habitation.

    I have just bought my first house, we had to save for about 3 years etc.. but managed it fairly well but our income is probably higher than many. We had to do without a few things, but not half as much as the old lot on here moan about

    Not everyone in the 70s lived in shacks and slept on orange boxes when they bought their first house either, despite what we are told, my parents didnt, or my inlaws. This 'have it now' generation are also only taking advantage on what is available to them now, it wasnt around then, and more likely boomers would have also acted the same way, its a pointless comparison, but old people like to moan ;)
  • cells
    cells Posts: 5,246 Forumite
    Houses were cheaper but everything else was more expensive which meant housing was not more affordable but less.

    This is why ownership peaked in 2005. In 2005 homes were at their most affordable taking everything into consideration. They may not have been the cheapest but they were the most affordable at that time. Not in 1980 not in 1970 not in 1960 not in 1950 when ownership was lower despite the dreams of the kids today that things were so cheap back then clearly they were not affordable. Even in the late 40s early 50s some young children were sent to school without shoes the country was poor.

    Anyone who thinks housing was much more affordable in the 1950-1980s needs to explain why ownership was lower during that time than in this decade
  • qwert_yuiop
    qwert_yuiop Posts: 3,617 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    I went to university in the 80s and got paid for it through the grant system. What a privilege. Did we appreciate it? No, we moaned because we weren't getting enough. Brats.
    “What means that trump?” Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare
  • ukcarper
    ukcarper Posts: 17,337 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Carl31 wrote: »
    I have just bought my first house, we had to save for about 3 years etc.. but managed it fairly well but our income is probably higher than many. We had to do without a few things, but not half as much as the old lot on here moan about

    Not everyone in the 70s lived in shacks and slept on orange boxes when they bought their first house either, despite what we are told, my parents didnt, or my inlaws. This 'have it now' generation are also only taking advantage on what is available to them now, it wasnt around then, and more likely boomers would have also acted the same way, its a pointless comparison, but old people like to moan ;)

    The problem at looking at decades as whole is property prices in relation to earnings have varied considerably. I bought my first home in 1972 I paid £8000 and was earning £1.5k. Six month earlier similar houses were £5.5k while six months later they were £10k.

    I think the older generation would do exactly the same as the younger generation do in relation to spending on gadgets etc. Saying that a big difference was the attitude to and availability of credit.
  • ruperts
    ruperts Posts: 3,673 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 2 October 2016 am31 9:37AM
    cells wrote: »
    Anyone who thinks housing was much more affordable in the 1950-1980s needs to explain why ownership was lower during that time than in this decade

    Precisely because houses were so cheap and because private renting was cheap and social renting was readily available, so whether you bought or rented didn't impact so much on your wealth. It would have been reasonable at that time to expect the country to carry on building enough houses for the growing population so the idea of above inflation house price growth didn't really exist. Everybody thought housing would carry on being cheap so there was no rush to buy. It was only when your generation decided to sell off the social housing and stop building replacements that we started seeing rampant house price growth which has continued until today where whether you buy or rent can now make or break your long term wealth.
  • ukcarper
    ukcarper Posts: 17,337 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    ruperts wrote: »
    Precisely because houses were so cheap and because private renting was cheap and social renting was readily available, so whether you bought or rented didn't impact so much on your wealth. It would have been reasonable at that time to expect the country to carry on building enough houses for the growing population so the idea of above inflation house price growth didn't really exist. Everybody thought housing would carry on being cheap so there was no rush to buy. It was only when your generation decided to sell off the social housing and stop building replacements that we started seeing rampant house price growth which has continued until today where whether you buy or rent can make or break your long term wealth.
    Have you ever look at earnings to house prices prior to 1990. Have a look at this https://grandemotte.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/price_earnings.jpg
  • ruperts
    ruperts Posts: 3,673 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    ukcarper wrote: »
    Have you ever look at earnings to house prices prior to 1990. Have a look at this https://grandemotte.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/price_earnings.jpg

    Yes and what it shows is that house prices were generally stable at around 3.5 times earnings until the 2000s where they rocket up to 7 times earnings. Your graph finishes in 2011 assuming it will continue to fall after the recession but clearly that hasn't happened. House prices have continued to rocket while wages are stagnant so it'll still be around the 7 or 8 mark now, more than twice as expensive relative to wages as in the past.
  • missbiggles1
    missbiggles1 Posts: 17,481 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    ukcarper wrote: »
    Compared to 40 years ago they are not as much more expensive as you see to think.

    Saying that in London and the south east agree I agree it's more difficult to buy that it it has ever been.

    For many of us in the 70s and 80s it was impossible to buy in those areas - becoming more impossible doesn't really change much on a practical level.
  • SailorSam
    SailorSam Posts: 22,754 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    ruperts wrote: »
    It was only when your generation decided to sell off the social housing and stop building replacements that we started seeing rampant house price growth which has continued until today where whether you buy or rent can now make or break your long term wealth.

    I grew up on a Council estate, my Mum rented her house as did my Nan. When Maggie decided it was only fair that all those people who had been paying rent for years, should be allowed to buy, we thought she was wonderful. A great leader helping the poor get on the housing ladder. Probably without Maggie they'd never ever afforded to move from the Council estate to something better. But looking back, although selling off all those homes was great for us, i think she did the wrong thing. Many of our housing problems of day can probably be put down to the Iron Lady.
    Liverpool is one of the wonders of Britain,
    What it may grow to in time, I know not what.

    Daniel Defoe: 1725.
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