What makes you think housing is going to become ''easily'' affordable?

EliteHeat

THSHARIF wrote: »

to many people say thier will be a drop, max drop will be 10%, if you can negetiate a good price with the seller in this current time , you can aviod loosing any of your deposit in negative equity.

it is hard to get a mortgage at the moment but if you worry about rates giong up or down by 1%. you might as well not buy at all.
the kind of money you need as deposit is thousunds, compared to £40 or $50 quid each rises in interset rates month.
if you got they money in the bank use it know to your advantage.

The searing logic of your well reasoned argument was only let done by one or two minor presentational errors, which I have helpfully highlighted for you. Other than that, I now know that 10% is the limit. I can now make major financial plans for the future based on your expert advice, so thank you.

fc123

mitchaa wrote: »

Does anyone know what lending criteria was used back in the 80's/90's for working out mortgages?

End 1989. Self employed married couple we needed 3 yrs accounts and were offerred 3 X average salary over the previous 3 years.
Abbey National repayment mortgage.

My sister 1993 (I think) 2.5 X salary (single person). Bought 1 bed flat (compromised on area, was not near a station as couldn't afford those; some things don't change). Earnt 19k (flat cost 45k)

and 1996, when we moved again...back to the Abbey with 3 yrs accts and 3 X joint salary again.
Life was simpler then.

Badger_Lady

South Wales - great example!

Myself and three of my single friends all have mortgages on our own houses. Alone. We're in our mid-20's and bought within the last couple of years (I first bought in 2005, Friend A in 2006 and Friends B&C in 2007).

We're fairly average earners, working in professional office jobs. And we each have a 2-3 bedroom terraced house in the City centre, which we can comfortably afford, as well as indulging in decent cars, going out socialising / dating etc...

As long as young, single people in this area can still comfortably afford houses (not pokey flats but proper family houses), why should the prices ever drop? Hey, I even considered selling up and buying two properties (you know, cottage on the beach and crashpad in the city) :rotfl:.

mitchaa

kristianwilliams wrote: »

Also I LOVE this one

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-17448148.rsp?pa_n=11&tr_t=buy

"REALISTICALLY PRICED FOR A QUICK SALE."

£105,000 3 bedroom terraced


Tada

And all this before "the HPC"

Never realised there were such bargains still around but i suppose its all relevant to the individual regional areas and employment/salaries etc.

£105,000 up my way unfortunately would only buy a 1bed flat. £105,000 in the SE/SW might only buy a garden shed:rotfl:

kristianwilliams

PasturesNew wrote: »

Not if your gf leaves you for a bloke with a bigger ... wallet.

As a single person you couldn't buy those.

True, although I'd like to think that my GF is not as shallow as that and that money isnt everything, us being together is. which is why she stayed with me here instead of going back to England when we graduated. She also took the first job she could get so we could stay together. (although its nice to know where your loyalty's lay with comments like that :rolleyes:)

So what happens to joint incomes homes? you know? the ones where people are married and lived together and got a home? what happens if one of them leaves? will they still be able to afford the mortgage?

You can use that argument with everyone. I could'nt afford those and thus I would have to downsize.

THSHARIF

well borrowing on my parners salary of 30k and my salary of 22k we only asked for 97k with a deposit of 25% and savings of another 15% in Isa's.

what was there problem if i had something small on my file.

it is becoming stupid, first they lend to anyone then they start becoming over disciplined in thier lending

mitchaa

Badger_Lady wrote: »

South Wales - great example!

Myself and three of my single friends all have mortgages on our own houses. Alone. We're in our mid-20's and bought within the last couple of years (I first bought in 2005, Friend A in 2006 and Friends B&C in 2007).

We're fairly average earners, working in professional office jobs. And we each have a 2-3 bedroom terraced house in the City centre, which we can comfortably afford, as well as indulging in decent cars, going out socialising / dating etc...

As long as young, single people in this area can still comfortably afford houses (not pokey flats but proper family houses), why should the prices ever drop? Hey, I even considered selling up and buying two properties (you know, cottage on the beach and crashpad in the city) :rotfl:.

Exactly, 30/40/50% drops in your area would be completely ludicrous. Persons like yourselves would then be able to buy a 2nd home with ''only'' an average income, and i suspect 1 bed flats would be purchased on credit cards:rotfl:

I think its too rash to generalise that the UK is going to see 30/40/50% falls across the board.

kristianwilliams

OH god yea, I too actually doubt any huge price drops in this area over the 20% mark at all. Mainly because wages have been kept low in these area's.

But I do see it getting harder to get into the market with stricter banks.
Harder to get onto the ladder means a small dip in prices for smaller houses. But it also allows serious buyers better benifits. There are new builds only a few years old, that sell for £90,000. These houses are priced well IMHO. But a drop of a few thousand could be seen over the next few years.

Prices will drop, but not by alot. But a £6,000 drop on a £100,000 house is still a nice drop in price

teabelly

More people are living longer so they are not leaving their current home as soon. Divorce is creating more households ditto the increased numbers of students and immigration. It is the household creation, running around 100,000 pa, which is putting on the squeeze in housing availability and pushing up prices.

The next housing shortage will be in normal 2 & 3 bed+ houses. There are far too many flats being built but builders are cutting back on building houses. Flats might drop like stones but decent sized homes are more likely to hold their current values. Urban regeneration is also wiping out thousands of terraced homes and replacing them mostly with nasty new build flats so there is a net loss of decent sized housing. This makes it even worse. There might be 300,000 empty homes in England (1.6% of the total stock) but if they are in the wrong place ie clapped out mining towns and other rough areas that no one wants to live in then their existence is pointless. The places with the highest number of empty homes have the lowest prices. Less than 2% empty suggests a very efficient market to me.

There has been a serious over supply in new build flats for years. Ones being sold in auction now are mostly fetching under 100k if they are being allowed to sell. Some were bought for 200k + in 2006 but that is new builds in Manchester for you

Dan:_4

I wouldn't take too much notice of the nonsense that is sometimes aired in this forum.

It is always going to be difficult to buy your first home, but that has always been the case - it makes me laugh when some people reckon it was a piece of p!ss to buy a house 10/20 years ago.

These days FTB set their expectations way to high. They come out of Uni, get a job with a salary of 25K and expect to be able to buy a 3-bed semi with a double garage. When they discover they can only afford a 1-bed in a less desirable area of town they complain they are priced out of the market.

Start at the bottom.