Houses are affordable!

GothicStirling

When you consider as a kid in the 80s, my Dad was able to go to work and pay a mortgage, look after 3 kids, have a holiday every summer - and my Mam stopped working in 1978 to look after us. What family could do that now on one salary?

Red-Squirrel_2

Cakeguts wrote: »

Someone I know of who needed somewhere to live before ww11

Hold the phone, there have been nine world wars I haven't noticed?

mrginge

capital0ne wrote: »

In 1957 the average wage was £7 10s - equates to £390 per year
The average house cost £2,000 - 5 times salary

Fast forward to now

The average wage is about £20,000 per year (starting point for a civil servant in their early 20's)
A quick search on Rightmove and you can find two bed terraced houses or similar for under £100,000 (not in London of course)

So where's the problem?

Well you’ve clearly demonstrated the problem in your own question.

In 1957 the average wage wage would buy the average house.
Today the average wage will buy a house less than half the average price (except in London of course :doh:)

Of course this assumes the numbers you made up are actually accurate

freeisgood

capital0ne wrote: »

In 1957 the average wage was £7 10s - equates to £390 per year
The average house cost £2,000 - 5 times salary

Fast forward to now

The average wage is about £20,000 per year (starting point for a civil servant in their early 20's)
A quick search on Rightmove and you can find two bed terraced houses or similar for under £100,000 (not in London of course)

So where's the problem?

The problem is that you have twiddled the figures....

Its should read

"Fast forward to now, average salary 27k but average house price 223K

or 8.25 x the average salary.

You can be sure these 100k houses are in deprived areas with decent paying jobs thin on the ground.



PS where I live there is nothing...not even a studio flat on sale within 5 miles of the city for under 150k and i'm not anywhere near London

getmore4less

boliston wrote: »

In the 50's it was more common to marry young and buy a house together - nowadays people settle down with a partner at a much later age (if at all) so often have to buy a house with only one salary rather than two - there also seems to be a trend to live in more urban areas where prices are much higher which makes it doubly difficult to buy

in the 50's many would be buying and starting families on single income, dual income buying and delaying the family as the norm came later.

In the 50s the age of women starting the family was declining from around 25.5 reaching a low around 23.5 in the 60's then climbing to now around 30.

Another very significant statistic is the no. of births over 40, although it has not changed much, what has change is in the past many(75%) would be to women with at least 2 children already, now most(61%) are 1st/2nd child.

larger families were norm so the periods women would be unable to work was much longer than now.

ThePants999

"In the Fifties, the average house was 5 times average salary. Now, certain small houses exist, in specific locations that aren't where the jobs are, for 5 times average salary. It's exactly the same, guys, where's the problem!??"

<-- logic classes thataway m'friend

sulphate

We live near Cambridge, which isn’t London, but it’s still expensive. You can’t get a 2 bed terrace for that price here - we sold our 2 bed terrace (our first home) for £177k in the summer and we lived in a town 15 miles out of Cambridge. I can’t find anything on Rightmove for under £100k within 20 miles of Cambridge, for £120k you can get a 1 bedroom flat. Yes, people can move further away, but that just adds on to their commuting costs.

I’m 30 and my husband 32 so presumably in your target “age range”. I don’t know anyone with an iPhone X. We don’t have gym membership and rarely get takeaways. I assume you mean new car for £199 a month? Our cars are 7 and 10 years old, were bought outright and the only people I know who have cars on finance are work colleagues who are in their 40s, 50s etc and are already established house-wise. Certainly no one I know my age has cars on finance.

We live in a 3 bedroom family house now that we bought for £310k, we are on average salaries, and the only reason we were able to afford this is due to a combination of factors: we lived with my parents for 2 years to save for a deposit for our first home, my parents helped us with the deposit a little, we bought our first home in 2013 and sold it in 2017 for a 40k profit and we inherited a substantial amount of money about 3 years ago. We are very lucky. Many people aren’t!

Of course, we could move to a cheaper area but finding a job in Cambridge (which is a rich city) is difficult enough. Last year when my employer were recruiting for a similar job to mine they had 60 applicants. I got promoted this month but still had to go up against 24 other applicants. My mum always said that “in her day” if you didn’t get one job after an interview, you’d almost certainly get the next one.

In comparison, my mum bought her first flat after she got promoted and she simply saved the difference in her wage for a few years. Her parents were extremely poor and certainly could never have helped. Her flat then quadrupled in value (London) in 3 years so her and my dad were then able to buy a house. My in laws were able to buy their 2 bedroom flat in the 80s under the right to buy scheme, they sold it for double as soon as they could so they could buy their house.

I'm sorry but I do think you are out of touch, yes I pay £30 a month for an iPhone but over 5 years that only adds up to £1800 which isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things. Especially considering most people I know in this area you have to have a deposit of around £30k or more and would need to save £500 a month over 5 years. That amount just isn't doable for a large proportion of 20 somethings living in rented accommodation, even if they live in a shared house - here you are looking at £500-£700 a month for rent.

satchef1

The average UK house costs £243,520.
The average UK salary is £27,271

That's 8.93 times salary, significantly higher than 5 times.

ACG

capital0ne wrote: »

In 1957 the average wage was £7 10s - equates to £390 per year
The average house cost £2,000 - 5 times salary

Fast forward to now

The average wage is about £20,000 per year (starting point for a civil servant in their early 20's)
A quick search on Rightmove and you can find two bed terraced houses or similar for under £100,000 (not in London of course)

So where's the problem?

It is in your post.
In 1957 the AVERAGE house was £2,000.
In 2017 you CAN FIND a house for under £100,000.

I can find a house for £30k. It does not mean I would want to live in the house or the area that the house is in - I have just read that back, I do not mean that in a snobby way just that it may be 3 hours from work and family and my local pub.

As it happens, I do not necessarily disagree with your post, I do speak to people who are not happy with what they can get, but I also speak to many people who are buying their first homes in their 20s and early 30s.

It is all about having the right expectations I suppose.

goodwithsaving

Prices near work are £250k> (and that's a flat, nowhere near London)
The max I can borrow is £160k
This leaves a gap of £90k minimum to plug on my own.
My phone is a Samsung S3 from 5 years ago. I have a contract at £10/month. My last holiday was in 2012. My car is second hand that I spent 6 months deliberating over buying and my one before died.
I can't remember the last time I went on a shopping trip and bought anything on impulse. I can't remember the last time I didn't buy clothes off eBay or Amazon. My pension scheme that I put 12% into is in doubt and my student loan debt is still towards the 20k mark 10 years after graduating.
So yes, it's really not that hard for the younger generations to buy a house.

It wasn't my generation who ball'sd up the country.


That said, I think it's always easier for the other generation, regardless of who that generation is and when times are.

I do get incredibly annoyed with friends who say they can't afford a house because they can't save for a house because they live the high life........but that isn't the majority.