AIBU to wonder why a pensioner struggling financially would not use housing equity?

lol, I don’t even know what to say to this nonsense and I’m not even young.

But if you look over the last 40 years you will see a very different pattern. The 80s was responsible for huge growth for example particularly in London.

We aren’t going to see that huge growth again because of a number of different factors eg demographics, lending criteria, wage stagnation, affordability etc

I imagine the calls for older people to release the equity in their homes is - as is usual with threads like this one - driven by envy and spite.
For some reason which I cannot fathom, people at the beginning/middle of their mortgages seem to think they are somehow disadvantaged because they haven't acquired the equity people much further down the line have.
It shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone that a house bought two years ago that it has not increased in value at the same rate as a house bought 50 years ago, but it seems to be driving ridiculous bad feeling towards pensioners.
To all those griping about the value of pensioners' houses: If you are paying off a mortgage now, the overwhelming likelihood is that your house will increase in value over your lifetime.
The years of raising children are the most expensive years of your life - there is nothing unique about struggling as a young family, and before another urban myth is trotted out, it has not been commonplace to have just one breadwinner in a family for decade now.
The truth is, every generation has its struggles. Young families now are finding housing difficult. My generation found it easier to buy a house, but struggled with very high interest rates and negative equity.
Stop being so entitled and accept the old person living in a house worth much more than they paid for it WILL be you one day. I only hope that your children are kinder to you.

House price growth isn't measured in just 10 years but over the course of, say, 40 years, it is pretty much unheard of for house prices not to rise substantially.
If you want to cherry pick a decade, I'll give you 1988-98, when interest rates rose steeply and house prices slumped into negative equity in some cases.
Prices recovered then and they will in the future.

Well no as you blatantly lied about me.

If she is choosing between heating, eating or leaving money to her family then that's completely stupid

"I imagine the calls for older people to release the equity in their homes is - as is usual with threads like this one - driven by envy and spite."

Or alternatively driven by the fact that the people making those calls believe the country is maxed out in terms of taxation of working class people, services are poor, we need to spend more money on things like defence and there just isn't the cash around to allow some people to sit on millions of pounds worth of assets while getting further state support.

"Stop being so entitled and accept the old person living in a house worth much more than they paid for it WILL be you one day."

I am yet to be convinced that most people today will see the gains in property that occurred in the SE during say 1995-2005. An example include the changes in the London flat market which will feed into housing at some point. My place has barely risen in inflation over the past decade.

Unless you see scope for people getting considerably richer with more money to spend on housing (how is that going to happen?) then it is unlikely that house prices will rise significantly, unless we are going to allow a whole load of money to pile into the country from outside to chase up prices ?

Then maybe stop quoting me?

I imagine the calls for older people to release the equity in their homes is - as is usual with threads like this one - driven by envy and spite.
For some reason which I cannot fathom, people at the beginning/middle of their mortgages seem to think they are somehow disadvantaged because they haven't acquired the equity people much further down the line have.
It shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone that a house bought two years ago that it has not increased in value at the same rate as a house bought 50 years ago, but it seems to be driving ridiculous bad feeling towards pensioners.
To all those griping about the value of pensioners' houses: If you are paying off a mortgage now, the overwhelming likelihood is that your house will increase in value over your lifetime.
The years of raising children are the most expensive years of your life - there is nothing unique about struggling as a young family, and before another urban myth is trotted out, it has not been commonplace to have just one breadwinner in a family for decade now.
The truth is, every generation has its struggles. Young families now are finding housing difficult. My generation found it easier to buy a house, but struggled with very high interest rates and negative equity.
Stop being so entitled and accept the old person living in a house worth much more than they paid for it WILL be you one day. I only hope that your children are kinder to you.

I think you’re not very well if that counts?

Just admit you’re in love with me.

Well she is as she has lied about me and there’s no context as she’s name changed so I can’t refute her claims of me moaning about what I ‘get’ when I “get” sfa as I live on my private pension that I paid into for 43 years.

If she stopped name changing I could see the context and refute it.

Cowardly imo.

People name change for privacy reasons - I don’t think it is fair to assume @StealMySunshining is doing it for any malign motivation.

Lie about what? Am I in court?

We are talking about pensioners.

Does your mum receive pension credit? Because if yes then she is exempt from the bedroom tax anyway.

I don't think anyone is being spiteful and people are, of course, entitled to keep any assets they have acquired legally over their lives - however just don't come whining about poverty or seeking state support if you cannot afford to maintain or run that asset and refuse to draw on it or liquidate it.

I'm not being unsympathetic

Theres a lady on the news at the moment, saying how times are tough and shes only cooking one meal a week - imagine she's eating cold food.

One thing that stood out though "I own my own house and it costs in maintenance" Depending on where she is, would you not get a life time mortgage or sell and rent? She has a big asset, why not use it to have a better life? I know I would.

She may be holding on to it for inheritance, but she didn't say - if so, then can her family help. It just seems totally crazy

There is no such thing as equity release for anyone under 55 or anyone with an existing mortgage so this is a completely fictional scenario. And you don't even have to make repayments.

Because of the spiral. They are borrowing money in a way that is extortionate. Yes, call it compounding, but it is a very expensive way of securing money.

if you are 85 (and without writing all 85yr olds off) drawing down on the house to pay for care in your final few years is probably a valid option if needed. You aren’t going to get any other type of loan. Your beneficiaries won’t inherit so much - but that’s fine. The interest incurred will come off the asset.

if you are 45, with a family, you will never be able to get on top of the level of repayments required to pay back that equity release. It would be near impossible. For most, the mortgage is already a huge percentage of your outgoings. You would never be able to double that. Means testing would prove they couldn’t afford it. You would need to sell, and you would maybe still be paying off the debt after that due to how quickly that debt can spiral and how long it takes to sell. You will never be able to buy again, and now queuing for council support and benefits to house your family. Now there is another family in social housing, on benefits, adding to the benefits bill long term.

Help them earlier, help them through the rough patch whilst unemployed or fighting illness, then they are back on their feet and not reliant on state help for the foreseeable.