First-time buyers 'at fresh low'

Generali

dolce_vita wrote: »

And this is why we have arrived at this situation.

"equity" is all that people have now. No savings, nothing but equity.

Rampant HPI is supposed to have made us all wealthier and yet some buyers haven't even got £400 to pay for a HIP.

It really is fvcking pathetic.

Lots of my contempories (in their thirties, professionals or doing pretty well for themselves) just seem to have lost their marbles when it comes to housing.

One example. Good mate of mine. Married a lovely girl, had a beautiful kid. He's in IT earning a packet, she's quit work to look after the baby for a bit and might go back to work in a year or two (but will struggle to make anything after childcare costs).

They wanted a nice family home to bring the kid up in so sold their flat and bought a good 3 bed semi with a nice garden in an ok bit of London (that was pretty rough until a few years ago - now it's all flash restaurants and Foxtons with fridges full of water). They paid half a million quid! Their mortgage is huge and he's contracting and can't even afford to take a full time job! It's ok though because the house is worth £700k now (or whatever, pick a number).

I asked him what happens if he loses his job. How quickly he'd need to find another one.

"Oh we'd be completely fcked Generali, you know how it is. I'll just have to get another one quickly".

I really hope nothing bad happens to him as he's a really nice bloke but he (and so many others) seem to have set themselves up in an unbelievably precarious situation.

dolce_vita wrote: »

(have a nice christmas gen)

And you. Here's to the Sweet Life.

WTF?_2

Generali wrote: »

I really hope nothing bad happens to him as he's a really nice bloke but he (and so many others) seem to have set themselves up in an unbelievably precarious situation.

The power of sentiment. Right now everything has been on a roll (economics wise) for the best part of a decade. Especially in the last 3 years or so. An entire generation of people don't even know what economic hardship is and most of us have never experienced a really nasty recession in our adult lives.

Closest I came was looking for a job at the start of the 90s when I graduated. I ended up going back to do postgrad studies so it wasn't exactly like I realy felt the rough end of the economic climate of the time.

Tens, probably hundreds, of thousands of ostensibly well off middle-class people like your mate are going to find things get much, much tougher very soon now. The social shock will be profound and I'n not really sure I want to be around the UK when it happens..... :eek: