Interest rates at historical lows, housing prices through the roof, wages stagnant and Brexit.

HCIMbtw

mollycat wrote: »

I'm with the @Another Joe's response earlier in the thread; most of the OP's post is inaccurate, fuelled by a false sense of unfairness.

To say young people have it tougher now that at any time since WW2 is both laughable and insulting.

Whilst earning £38K as a 24 year old???

By any standard of empirical measurement or anecdotal evidence, life for a young person is far, far easier than previous decades...(see AJ's post), but in your head this is irrelevant because you can't afford to own property in the most in demand part of the UK..

I'd love to live in the SE; even after 40 years of productive labour I can't afford to; what entitlement to you have to do so?

If modern life prompts the type of angst in your OP goodness knows how you would cope in (say) the 1970's....real youth unemployment, houses without CH, poorer quality food, less sophisticated health care, rubbish public transport, less enlightened society....the list is almost endless.

Your making the mistake that people my age often seem to have a better time of it because we lived in a different era; it's because people my age have the fruits of all that effort and (hopefully) good decision making.

You too in your 50's and 60's will hopefully be sitting comfortably, (when people like me are long gone and people of your current age are pointing the finger at you asking why you have things they can't have )

The thing that hopefully won't hold you back is the attitude and misguided grudge of your OP; you actually have it better than previous generations, you should expoit that.

So you reflect on the 70's, but we can be talking much more recent history which would reflect the OP's frustration (specifically the 20 years they have grown up in)

https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/budgets/gb2018/GB9%20-%20housing%20pre-release%20-%20final%20from%20Judith.pdf

Also when you refer to fruits of all that effort, what this actually is for many people 50+ is simply accumulated wealth through house ownership, which essentially indebts the next generation buying it.. ok if you own it, not so good if you don't

if all that effort was savvy saving and investment then i'd listen to the argument.. and for some people it will be and I don't mean to belittle them in anyway, but in the majority people just got kind of lucky and road the inflation train

Government policy has been a travesty for inflating house prices and voters have and will continue to vote for policies that support house price inflation.. its moronic

AnotherJoe

Brian65 wrote: »

Thats what vested interests tell us. But look at the facts and work it out for yourself. You could start with google maps and see just how much land is undeveloped. Last time I looked it was only about 9%, Wheras in Germany where the population density is about the same as Britain - they have developed about 12% of the land - hence no housing crisis.
.

LOL. In Germany most people rent not own and there's no aspiration to own as there is here,
P,us, a search for "housing crisis in Germany" finds plenty of results affirming that actually, there is an issue there.

mollycat

HCIMbtw wrote: »

So you reflect on the 70's, but we can be talking much more recent history which would reflect the OP's frustration (specifically the 20 years they have grown up in)

https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/budgets/gb2018/GB9%20-%20housing%20pre-release%20-%20final%20from%20Judith.pdf

Also when you refer to fruits of all that effort, what this actually is for many people 50+ is simply accumulated wealth through house ownership, which essentially indebts the next generation buying it.. ok if you own it, not so good if you don't

if all that effort was savvy saving and investment then i'd listen to the argument.. and for some people it will be and I don't mean to belittle them in anyway, but in the majority people just got kind of lucky and road the inflation train

Government policy has been a travesty for inflating house prices and voters have and will continue to vote for policies that support house price inflation.. its moronic

You're completey wrong, nearly 100% wrong actually, at least for the area I stay in.

Given house ownership was so low in my parents generation, I don't know hardly anyone who has not owned property through "savvy saving and investment" as opposed to inheriting property.

I know that will be a mind blowing concept to the generation that think essential spending is avocado toast and a £50/month phone contract, (joke, joke, just kidding ), but that's the way it was.

I bear your generation no ill-will; but for your own sake the penny has to drop....you guys will live in the best of times, wake up and embrace your good fortune

HCIMbtw

mollycat wrote: »

You're completey wrong, nearly 100% wrong actually, at least for the area I stay in.

Given house ownership was so low in my parents generation, I don't know hardly anyone who has not owned property through "savvy saving and investment" as opposed to inheriting property.

I know that will be a mind blowing concept to the generation that think essential spending is avocado toast and a £50/month phone contract, (joke, joke, just kidding ), but that's the way it was.

I bear your generation no ill-will; but for your own sake the penny has to drop....you guys will live in the best of times, wake up and embrace your good fortune

I think you miss my point, or maybe i worded it wrong, i do not mean to say you wont have owned a property through savvy saving and investment

but relative wealth in present day for many 50+ has come about through inflation in owned property assets

I mean, the generation has also benefited from far more preferable pensions...

grumiofoundation

HCIMbtw wrote: »

Quite amused by the sensitive boomers who got triggered by your thread!

I would define myself as an insensitive millennial and I also found the OP irritating.

Although buying a house may be more difficult now than in the past (ignoring of course that mortgage rates are sometimes 10 x lower than they used to be) I know I would rather be young now than in the past.

If you earn 38000 per year you have a much higher quality of life now than at any time throughout history.

HCIMbtw wrote: »

The one thing that frustrates me a little as a millenial growing up in this period is how much financial pressure there is at the start of careers/adult lives when you are trying to get yourself established, namely the cost of buying car, cost of insurance, student debt circa £250pm, costs of saving/buying a house, costs of getting married, costs of kids, ...!when during this period putting money towards pension and later life savings would be so valuable!!

To be fair most of these pressures are in fact choices

the cost of buying car - Most people, especially young people don't need a car, they choose to buy a car
cost of insurance - home insurance etc is cheap, car insurance see above
student debt circa £250pm - If you are paying £250 pcm student debt you are going to be earning around 50k (plan 1) to nearer 55k (plan 2).
costs of saving/buying a house - I don't think savings can really be seen as a cost?
Cost of getting married - if you have a big wedding and spend thousands on it that is your choice. But people who turn round and complain they cant afford a deposit because they spent 20000 on their wedding need to realise they made that choice.
costs of kids - fair enough expensive if you have them

HCIMbtw

grumiofoundation wrote: »

I would define myself as an insensitive millennial and I also found the OP irritating.

Although buying a house may be more difficult now than in the past (ignoring of course that mortgage rates are sometimes 10 x lower than they used to be) I know I would rather be young now than in the past.

If you earn 38000 per year you have a much higher quality of life now than at any time throughout history.



To be fair most of these pressures are in fact choices

the cost of buying car - Most people, especially young people don't need a car, they choose to buy a car
cost of insurance - home insurance etc is cheap, car insurance see above
student debt circa £250pm - If you are paying £250 pcm student debt you are going to be earning around 50k (plan 1) to nearer 55k (plan 2).
costs of saving/buying a house - I don't think savings can really be seen as a cost?
Cost of getting married - if you have a big wedding and spend thousands on it that is your choice. But people who turn round and complain they cant afford a deposit because they spent 20000 on their wedding need to realise they made that choice.
costs of kids - fair enough expensive if you have them

All totally valid points, wouldn't disagree with you on anything

For reference I cycled to work for 6 years, have a £10 per pay as you go sim, got married in a village hall

Doesn't stop there being a big element of front loading when trying to put yourself in a good place for the future though.. when i had my first graduate job at £17k was paying £250pm for train travel and £700pm for a crummy flat

will have thet student loan paid off in 4 years..

i honestly wouldn't go to uni nowadays with the costs though.. i'd definitely go the apprenticeship route

Thrugelmir

Brian65 wrote: »

Thats what vested interests tell us. But look at the facts and work it out for yourself. You could start with google maps and see just how much land is undeveloped. Last time I looked it was only about 9%, Wheras in Germany where the population density is about the same as Britain - they have developed about 12% of the land - hence no housing crisis.

Not sure comparisons can be made simply by looking at Google maps.

Gadfium

CreditCardChris wrote: »

I earn £38,000 a year before tax and I feel like no matter how hard I try, how much I save, I'll never own a house. If I ever do it'll be terraced house, wedged like a sardine between two other houses.

Boo Hoo.


I bought my first house in this country in 1995. I was earning about £11000 per annum at this time. My partner at the time was earning about £14.5K.
It was a terraced "wedged in like a sardine". We couldn't afford curtains at first, so I used to hang a towel over the window in the kitchen.

I was working as a welder-fabricator and used to work overtime and Saturdays to make ends meet.



I moved to the UK from Ireland to get out of a massive recession. When I moved I had £900 to my name and everything I owned in a cardboard box.

HCIMbtw

Gadfium wrote: »

Boo Hoo.


I bought my first house in this country in 1995. I was earning about £11000 per annum at this time. My partner at the time was earning about £14.5K.
It was a terraced "wedged in like a sardine". We couldn't afford curtains at first, so I used to hang a towel over the window in the kitchen.

I was working as a welder-fabricator and used to work overtime and Saturdays to make ends meet.



I moved to the UK from Ireland to get out of a massive recession. When I moved I had £900 to my name and everything I owned in a cardboard box.

24 years ago you and you're partner were earning a reasonable salary and managed to buy a house?

quite the tale..

CreditCardChris

Brilley wrote: »

..yes I remember the good old days of 14% mortgage interest rates when we purchased our first house...

You were charged 14% interest to buy a house which is now worth 500% - 1000% more than it was when you probably bought it? The good old days indeed.