The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

ZoeGirl_3

countrygirl27 wrote: »

'So you see, shrug your shoulders and laugh at those who worry about such things if you will, But now you should know why so many people are genuinely concerned about house prices. So should you be.'

OK so thats me told!

I was not doing the above, I was saying I didn't understand this aspect of it.

Of course I want prices to fall, so that I can afford a nicer property/pay less for it/ have less rick/make my deposit into a bigger proportion of the price etc. So I can see why people like myself, who are hoping to be FTB over the next few years, are hoping to see property prices fall.

But here is a scenario - if you are in your early 60's, recently retired, mortgage payed off and a nice pension rolling in, why are you worrying about proerty prices? Because it seems to me that everything is relative - ie. yes the value of your house is falling, but so is the value of everyone elses. Lets say my imaginary person lives in a 3 bed family home that is currently worth £350K. They decide to move to a smaller 2 bed flat currently on the market for £200k. But property prices fall 10%. Yes they lose money on their house, but the flat is now £20k cheaper as well. In fact in this scenario you could say they effectively lose £15k = ( -35k+20K=-15K)

Supposing you were the person going the other way, from the flat to the house you could argue that the change in price is actually benefiting you because yes your flat has lost £20k in value but at least you are paying £35K less for your new house.


Now I do understand that obviously it is far more complicated than this, and other factors come into play. Buying a house and paying off the mortgage is expensive and stressful. But I just think that 'HOUSE PRICES' are something that we as a nation are fixated on.

I know what you are saying! If you sell and buy in the same market, things shouldn't be so bad.

Think it is more of a problem especially if your house value drops below the value you paid for it and you are stuggling to meet repayments, because then even if you sell you are in debt?? I don't know, that is what I would be worrying about it property prices were falling anyway. :eek: lol

vicky_kidder

Can I please join this thread?

I'm really trying to save a deposit, but as it's so long away I need a bit of motivation and hopefully having chats with people with the same goal should help me!

The amount I'm aiming for and the amount I have managed to save is in my sig!

redrabbit29

Count me in too:

Halifax ISA = 3700ish

Errr... thats it!

I can probably save about £600 a month, although sometimes a bit more, no more than £1000 though as it depends on what overtime I can do in work.


I've got a good set up now with all my accounts. I have my "spending money" in a totally seperate account, and every direct debit I have goes out on the 1st of the month. In theory this means that on the 2nd of each month, whatever is left in the main account should be there at the end.

At the end of each month I set the main account back to £0.00 by transferring what ever is left to savings. Same with my spending money, if there is any left!!!


My GF and I are aiming for £15'000 each. Buying in the South East means we should be able to afford a 2 or 3 bedroom terraced house, maybe for around £150'000-£170'000.

LittleMissAspie

Sig updated, hooray!

The cheapest 2-bed that I mention in my sig isn't really somewhere I'd want to buy. But the next cheapest is definitely worth a viewing. It's 105k, reduced from 132k!

Cor I can't wait to see what prices are like in 2010. Ideally I'd like to borrow no more than 85k, that would make a repayment mortgage about the same as our current rent. It's actually looking achievable now!

Elspeth

Hi

Really inspired by people's efforts on here and would really like to join in. I've been doing some saving for a while but really want to make a big effort for the next 12 months with an eye to buying a house/flat. (A house?! In Greater London? Can only hope for a fall and save!)

I was lucky enough to be left a few thousand as a teenager (which was held in trust until I was 18) and to be able to add to this over the years so have (as of today) got a pot of just over 30K. My OH will be joining me in the quest and I'm setting the ambitious target of another 10K by September 2009. I've set up a little spreadsheet and am so far 76.4% of the way there (but like I say, mainly due to 'old' saving so think the last 23.6% will be tough going).

As well as lots of OS saving, we have committed to the following other things:

• keeping a spending diary (to reduce the 'extra little' drinks/snacks on way to/from work and OH needs to keep track of how much he's spending on CDs). So in theory there should be spare cash in the accounts at end of every month.
• putting all change below £1 in jars and any £2 coins we get (although we'll see how this goes, OH unsure about sticking in 50p coins)
• not acrueing any library fines (this is my folly - need to go and pay off £44 :eek: but then am determined to not end up owing another penny).

We're both looking for new jobs which hopefully will result in more money to save, but may result in less (as we both might need to 'move sideways').

Ellie

ray123

I would like to join!!!!!!!!!!

For Ellie and your library fines. Did you know that the majority of libraries I have used allow you to renew the books on internet or over the telephone.

What I do when I borrow a book (which I have not done for at least a year and I will def start doing again v soon), is to place a reminder in my phone a couple of days before the book is due back to ensure that I do not forget to either renew or return it...

LittleMissAspie

I buy books in charity shops and just give them back when I'm finished. It's not necessarily more expensive than the library if you're as bad at giving books back as I am...

lostinrates

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

I buy books in charity shops and just give them back when I'm finished. It's not necessarily more expensive than the library if you're as bad at giving books back as I am...

I'm trying to sort our less expensive stuff for a car boot sale (have never done this before, and stuff is taking a long while to sort) and thought I might take read books that aren't keepers to sell for 20-50p. Not sure if they will sell well, but we'll see (if I ever get the stuff sorted)

Bone_Idle

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

Cor I can't wait to see what prices are like in 2010. Ideally I'd like to borrow no more than 85k, that would make a repayment mortgage about the same as our current rent. It's actually looking achievable now!

We're also aiming for a mortgage where the repayments are the same as the rent we're paying now - at least we'd know it was affordable! I'm noticing one or two houses dropping into our price range now, but am being firm and telling myself there should be more in 6 months time...

Elspeth

... LittleMissAspie and Ray. Will try both your strategies to help with my ambition of £0 library fines for the next 12 months - and will keep you posted!