Houses are affordable!

aneary

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Ooh, I want to know what the degree subject is now..

Look, if you study something niche, then refuse to move to where the jobs in that subject exist - it's your own damn fault for studying it. Yes, at 15/16, you are responsible for your own future.

Now what I think isn't taught well at schools, is that many degree subjects are merely a stepping stone to further study. If you want to study English language with Religious Studies (http://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/english-language-and-communication-with-religious-studies) then you'd better know what you plan to do next with it.

I think it actually sounds quite interesting, but interesting doesn't always pay the bills.

Just for the record

I didn't get a degree I just fell into what I do and I am prepared to move to a wide range of places but the role I got happened to be in the south east. I have a niche job but taking a lower paid job in an area with lower priced housing won't make it any more affordable.

cloo

GreatApe wrote: »

Houses are affordable by any reasonable definition

One way to look at affordability is to look at reinstatement value vs price
The reinstatement value is the cost to rebuild a house if it is totally destroyed and in most the country the two are close which shows good value. For example I had a survey done recently and it came back with a reinstatement value of £350,000 vs a price of the house of perhaps £450,000

Another way you can look at it remortgage payments. In most the country a starter home can be had for about £120k for instance in Birmingham you can buy a 3 bedroom terrace for £120k the repayment mortgage on that would be about £400 per month. That is very affordable very cheap its a similar figure to renting a council house but at the end of 25 years you pay it off and your mortgage/rent goes to zero.

Another way to look at it is to look at ownership vs renting. And in the UK private rentals for uk born are just 14% which is a very low figure. Even those who are in private renting the majority do so temporarily while students/young-adults before they go on to the other tenures

Houses in most the country are cheap/affordable.

Maybe that could work as some kind of theoretical definition (eg assuming no other debt than mortgage) and of course it's cheaper than renting BUT renting does now require a minimum £10k in order to do that, plus not everyone can work everywhere - certain jobs are concentrated in certain cities and more and more people and businesses are urbanising. In the context of real life, no amount of explaining the ways in which it can be defined as affordable can make it so for everyone.

Cakeguts

aneary wrote: »

Sorry but I disagree. When I was made redundant I picked areas I would live, an hour away from the following towns (I knew someone in each)
Leeds
Leciester
Newcastle
Manchester
London
Guildford
Bristol

That is a pretty broad search area.

I got a Job in Portsmouth there wasn't a job in the other areas. Yes I have a niche job but if I took I less niche job I would earn a whole lot less and still wouldn't be able to afford a house in the other areas.

Some people do not have the funds to move away from where they live, some people can't move away from where they live (family commitments) in these cases it isn't a choice!

Just because you had the choice doesn't mean that every one else does.

No one is taking about living in Mayfair, no one is even talking about living in London.

So your comments are pretty pointless

So who made the choice that you would have a niche job? This isn't the government's fault it is your choice. I don't believe that someone offered you this job out of the blue without you asking them to and even if that happened you have the choice to decline it.

You are blaming the government and everyone else for the choices you made.

Since when were you entitled to have the job you wanted in the place you want to live and to be able to buy a house in the place you wanted to live and work? What makes you this special? This is what my parents used to call "The world doesn't owe you a living."

Cakeguts

aneary wrote: »

You are comparing today's price with rent over 3 years ago. That works, not!!! Also the price listed for the mortgage is way off.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47928285.html

This is property I was going to buy with a 15% deposit my mortgage was going to be £450pcm the house was previously rented for £650pcm.

You have made the incorrect assumption that all landlords have mortgages.

Everyone assumes that landlords buy properties with a mortgage and rent to tenants who can't get social housing. In case you are thinking like this you need to know that they don't. It all depends on the market that they are letting in.

LdnFtB

Cakeguts wrote: »

Anyone can study whatever they like at university but they do have to understand that if it is a subject that the UK economy doesn't need then they won't get a well paid job or a graduate level job. If you are happy with that then that is your choice. What you can't do is to blame everyone else for the fact that you don't earn what you consider to be a graduate level salary and you can't afford to buy a house.

People who worked in jobs that were paid at the bottom level of salaries have never been able to afford to buy they have always rented. That has not changed. What has changed is the Right to Buy where people on low wages have been given the right to buy their council homes and the stock of council housing has reduced but before Right to Buy people rented council houses for their entire lives. So in the past you would probably have got a council house and you would have rented for your entire life.

My grandmother was a nurse, my grandfather was a teacher. When they started a family my grandmother stopped working.

They were able to buy a detached house in North Oxford on his salary alone.

That is simply not an option for today's teachers and nurses, and don't you dare suggest that people in those roles don't contribute anything to society. Stop blaming young people who had no part in engineering the conditions they're subject to.

sulphate

Cakeguts wrote: »

So who made the choice that you would have a niche job? This isn't the government's fault it is your choice. I don't believe that someone offered you this job out of the blue without you asking them to and even if that happened you have the choice to decline it.

You are blaming the government and everyone else for the choices you made.

Since when were you entitled to have the job you wanted in the place you want to live and to be able to buy a house in the place you wanted to live and work? What makes you this special? This is what my parents used to call "The world doesn't owe you a living."

But one of the main reasons that some areas are more expensive is because there are more jobs. We live near Cambridge which is a rich city so house prices are expensive but our specific post code for example has a very high employment rate compared to the average. I'm pretty sure that our jobs just don't exist "up north". Some of the more niche jobs are higher paid because they are niche and require specific skill sets that not everyone has. Pay in jobs is largely determined by skill set and experience, that's why retail jobs pay minimum wage because although they are hard work, workers on their feet all day etc, the skill set/experience required is less specialised than for an investment banker's job (for example). I've already mentioned a job at my work that was advertised last year attracted 60 applicants. And yes, of course it's our choice what job we do, but not everyone can do every job. Not everyone can be good at everything, some people are just naturally good at certain things and not others. It's just not that simple to tell people to find a high paid job in a deprived area. If everyone in their 20s-30s moved further north there would be even less jobs there than there are now!

Purely anecdotal but one example is a friend of mine spent 2 years trying to find a job in Liverpool, moved back to Cambridge and found one straight away.

I can understand people wanting to be close to family and not 100s of miles away, what about those who have elderly parents that need help?

Mr_Costcutter

To succeed it is sometimes necessary 'to think outside the box'. Years ago I was living in Surrey, but was offered a very good job in Cambridge. I would not have been able to take that job had I not made the decision to go into digs from Monday to Thursday. The problem being that at the time my wife was earning more than me and moving to Cambridge was not an option. Living in digs was awful - but I did it. After a few years my new job started to pay very well and so I decided to buy a terraced house and rent a couple of rooms - anything was better than digs lol. It worked out well and when the house next door came up for sale, I bought that house too. It was never my intention to become a landlord, but the opportunity presented itself and I took it. The decision to remain in Surrey was the right one - even though I detested digs and missed my family. My advice to all young people is to remain optimistic ( I know it's tough) and to cease every opportunity that comes your way.

LdnFtB

Mr_Costcutter wrote: »

To succeed it is sometimes necessary 'to think outside the box'. Years ago I was living in Surrey, but was offered a very good job in Cambridge. I would not have been able to take that job had I not made the decision to go into digs from Monday to Thursday. The problem being that at the time my wife was earning more than me and moving to Cambridge was not an option. Living in digs was awful - but I did it. After a few years my new job started to pay very well and so I decided to buy a terraced house and rent a couple of rooms - anything was better than digs lol. It worked out well and when the house next door came up for sale, I bought that house too. It was never my intention to become a landlord, but the opportunity presented itself and I took it. The decision to remain in Surrey was the right one - even though I detested digs and missed my family. My advice to all young people is to remain optimistic ( I know it's tough) and to cease every opportunity that comes your way.

Brilliant, so in a thread about how hard it is for young people to buy even one house you share an anecdote about how you came about to own three. Really helpful, thanks for the insight.

BucksLady

LdnFtB wrote: »

Brilliant, so in a thread about how hard it is for young people to buy even one house you share an anecdote about how you came about to own three. Really helpful, thanks for the insight.

If you digest the content perhaps there's a lesson to be learnt

Cakeguts

LdnFtB wrote: »

My grandmother was a nurse, my grandfather was a teacher. When they started a family my grandmother stopped working.

They were able to buy a detached house in North Oxford on his salary alone.

That is simply not an option for today's teachers and nurses, and don't you dare suggest that people in those roles don't contribute anything to society. Stop blaming young people who had no part in engineering the conditions they're subject to.

Where did he teach? Was it a state school or a private one?