FTB Help

airhostess

Hi Chardonnay,

It sounds like you are doing all the right things! Try and save as much as you can - and as well as putting money away, try and get the best deal on whatever you do need to spend money on. These boards are a great help with that. Keep an eye on house prices - set up Rightmove alerts so you can tell what the property market is doing in your area. Then you will be a first time buyer with cash in the bank - and you'll be able to use that to your advantage when the time comes to buy. Good luck!

IveSeenTheLight

Check out the area you are in. Not all house prices in all areas have dropped.

You have 5k of a deposit for a 100k house. Thats a good start as you will be looking for a 95% LTV.
The more deposit you have the better mortgages will be on offer to you

To give you an idea, a 100,000 C&I mortgage at 5.76% would be approx 634 per month.
A 95,000 C&I mortgage would be approx 602 per month

Good luck

irishjohn

Saving 5k out of 24K in one year is a pretty impressive piece of saving - You don't say what age you both are or what your plans are - family etc but you are pretty low on the earnings ladder. Remember - if the 5K is your total savings it has to pay for all the expenses of buying as well as the deposit. If you are young enough and have no plans for weddings family etc just keep doing what you are doing. A garden is great but without one you can go off and take advantage of the great outdoor spaces this country has without having to maintain it like a garden. Watch the housing market over the next year and maybe put a five year plan in place, to include not just the house but the jobs as well - set your own targets in moving on to better paid jobs to get to that ultimate goal - the house and garden - and good luck to you both