Isn't anybody tired of hearing the same old

PasturesNew

firsttimetom wrote: »

The only one i kow to have even STR (i think) is PasturesNew a year ago ish.

9 months.
And it was complex. I didn't do it just because of the crash. It was because:
- I didn't like my house
- It was way too big and needed money/skills and I had none
- There was no work where I was
- I'd been paying my mortgage by drawing down funds from a 2nd mortgage for about 6 years and knew I could only do that for another 5 years
- I felt it was all about to tip and I'd be stuck in that house for 6-7 years and I'd have totally thrown my life away and be old... for no good reason.

So I set out to start again. Sell the house. Get rid of all belongings. Head off ... well, anywhere. To see what happened.



Luvvin' it!

Note to self: 9 months on ... should get a job perhaps though. It's kind of lonely never leaving the house!

It's been great though. In the last 9 months I've found out who I am. I feel I can do whatever I want. I never have to think about money at all. I am at peace. And finally I've discovered it wasn't the world at fault, it was me all along

PasturesNew

Lavendyr wrote: »

Compared to an average salary today of, say, £50k

I wish. Mind you, that was one of the reasons I moved.

I lived at the seaside and everything was seasonal. Even butchers, for example, supplied 100 sausages in January and 5000 in July. When a whole economy is seasonal, your yearly wages average down to ..... pffft. Well, mine averaged down to about £8-9k the last 6 years.

Although I did earn that much once, for 6 months, 2000-2001.

Note to self: Get a bloomin' well paid job again, that was Plan A ... where did you lose the plot ...?

clk299

3.5x my salary is 105,000. The only thing I can buy with that in my area is a retirement flat. At this rate I'll be buying a retirement flat as I'll be living with my parents till I'm 50! To be honest now I feel like I should be trying to find a husband because that would solve my house-buying problems. It's much more difficult buying alone.

carolt

firsttimetom wrote: »

Talk about tar everyone with the same brush. I must admit I am pro HPC, but when I joined these forums a year ago, I was actually looking to buy. (You can find my first post from April 07 if you so wish). A house price crash ad never crossed my mind.

I started to here things about a crash and A LOT of people were saying 'it'll never happen' and were describing hpc.co.uk as a site full of loonies. They converted me though and I now follow their beliefs that the market will tank.

Fantastic post.

I'm - contrary to what some people on here seem to imagine - exactly the same (though my lightbulb moment was about 1 month earlier - March 07, after we got let down over a house we were trying to buy, and prices shot up further. At that point I looked around and realised that something had to give with the housing market and there was no way I could justify to my family the level of financial risk involved in taking out a mortgage at those prices.)

firsttimetom wrote: »

As for renting, I think the 'HPC brigade' are only looking at short term renting.

Exactly. With better tenancy rights, as used to exist in the UK, and as do exist abroad, I'd actually be perfectly happy to rent for life; but in the absence of those, then yes, buying makes sense if it gives you long term security. But of course buying at current prices is the opposite of long-term security - it equals long term crippling debt, and likely negative equity, repossession and huge debts to follow in due course.

But as soon as house prices have come back down to reasonable levels, of course I plan to buy - I'm a big fan of home ownership and like others who believe that house prices are about to crash big time, plan to buy - WHEN HOUSE PRICES HAVE CRASHED to reasonable levels re income/comparable rents - NOT BEFORE!

So, do buy! Just NOT NOW!

Lavendyr

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain wrote: »

@ Lavendyr - re-reading, i guess it does appear to come across as perhaps a shade arrogant, certainly not deliberately so... Please dont take the below personally as not aimed at you, or anyone else specifically. Accept there are always exceptions to every scenario.

Thanks for that, much appreciated. I am also aware that the area my partner and I live in is more expensive than many (hence not being able to afford a 2-up, 2-down house) but due to work commitments neither of us is able to move (we also work in different towns so we have to find an in-between place which is commutable for both of us).

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain wrote: »

when you say "We" there are two of you right? And presume you are in the 'young' range i mention above??

We are both in the 24-30 age group (the lower and upper range thereof respectively). I graduated three years ago this June, my OH has been studying for a PhD until around three years ago.

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain wrote: »

Lets say you earn 15k each?

We earn a gross joint total of £50k. We also have a reasonable deposit of ~£25k between us.

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain wrote: »

Plug that into many online calculators are you'll probably get about 100-115k ish... If you're not picking and choosing style / areas etc you can still get a terrace for this. Hell, i just sold a 3bed demi with garage for 125k

That's the thing. These prices are realistic in many areas. However, as I mentioned, we can't get jobs in those areas - particularly my OH, whose area of work is very specialised. In our area, a 2-bed terrace costs upwards of £200k, and there are unfortunately very few available at any time. There is the occasional property at the £180k mark or thereabouts, but typically they are either a) in a very dodgy area, which is something I'm not prepared to compromise over (I don't want to feel unsafe in my own home) or b) quite run-down and in need of a lot of work which we are not able to do given our long working days.

I have to be honest and explain that there are other factors which prevent us from buying now, not least of which is the current market situation, but also, we are not yet sure of where we want to settle (in which area of which town within the area we are able to live), and we don't feel quite ready to take on the massive financial commitment of owning - and maintaining - a house. Much as we would love a 'home' rather than a rented house, at the moment it doesn't make sense to us - not just financially but for the stage of our lives we're at.

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain wrote: »

now lets presume you have been preparing for this house purchase financially (like i did, and my parents etc before me) and havent just decided you want it NOW like many people because owning our own house is a right and not a privilege (generalising ENORMOUSLY granted).. 24months @ £400 per month (much less than a mortgage but then you were living with parents so is easy to save this much right?)

Absolutely, we clear around £1000 per month between us into savings. And as explained above, we don't want it NOW, we want it 'in the next year or two' if the market has settled down.

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain wrote: »

Oh yea, i foolishly assumed the young couple havent gone out and blitzed 10k on an HPI agreement for a flash car or have credit cards up to the hilt due to holidays etc.

I can't speak for others, but we, at least, don't have any debt (aside from my student debt) and never go on holidays...it's sad but it feels like a waste of money to go on holiday!

Thanks for your perspective, Tighter, and of course in some circumstances I absolutely agree that you are right. I hope I've given you a slightly different perspective that there are some of us 'young people' who are working towards saving for a deposit and who don't want the world on a platter.