to feel seething resentment towards those who profited from the house price bubble and hot anger at the Governments who allowed it to happen?

[TartyMcFarty]

You'll have to forgive my naivety here - I'm ranting about something I don't really understand.

DH and I are stuck. In 2006 we bought a (modest) property on a 100% mortgage. Foolish in hindsight, I know, but based on the advice of our IFA, the unshakeable faith of our families and society that property ownership was the way to go, and the increasing pressure at the time to get on the ladder or miss out, that was the decision we made. We then found that the lender, bastard bastard Northern Rock were unwilling to remortgage based on our lack of equity, despite us having overpaid by several thousand pounds. We couldn't shift the place, and with the agreement of a different IFA, remortgaged against the equity in my DM's property (love her!). It gets more complicated than that, but that's all that's needed here. Now we still can't sell it , our tax credits have suddenly disappeared, my pension contribution has increased (DH doesn't even have a pension) and the tracker rate is slowly increasing. We're on interest only, and as I'm part time since the having DD, with another DC on the way, there's not much of a cushion.

What's really angered me over the last couple of days is the dawning realisation of how people just a few years older than us have profited from the massive increase in property 'values'. I'm still in touch with our ex-neighbour. She bought seven years earlier than us, sold at £120k profit after 10 years (this is not London!), her partner was in a similar situation so they have ended up comfortably in a property of twice the size, renovated to a really lovely standard. Obviously my resentment isn't directed at them personally - they're good people, have profited from a stupid market and good luck to them - but it's just an illustration.

How can we possibly hope to survive in a property market that boomed by more than 3.5x in this instance alone? We can't even afford to maintain our own home to a good standard. Pay isn't moving at all, and we're currently looking at less than .75 of a pension between us. I can't even bear to think about how we'll support our DCs through HE, and the risk to my DM's home if interest rates shoot up.

I just need a rant. Those of us stupid enough to be sucked in at high LTV rates towards the peak of the market are fucked all ways, whereas people just 5 years older than us are untouchable. I know I've only given one example for which I know the exact figures, but there are others I can think of in the same lucky situation. There just doesn't seem to be any point in trying when you compare our situation with those who profited so enormously in the 00s.

YANBU - it's a mess, the whole house price/negative equity situation - and what makes it worse is that it wasn't supposed to happen again after the early 1990s crash, was it? But it did. Stupid greed with no thought and no regulation has allowed house prices to go up and up again, to an unbelievably unsustainable level - and of course they had to come down but there are always some who get caught in the trap. :(

Our house has gone up in value, yes. But we can't move anywhere because, guess what? All other houses have too. It's our home, not some paper money we can spend.

You don't have to 'support' your children through HE. That's what the very competitively-priced loans are for.

i understand what you are saying. I am extraordinarily angry with the baby boomer generation for similar reasons.

My parents laugh at me when i say i can't afford something. They do not understand that even tho we earn good money, every penny is used up every month. Mortgage & fares are the best part of 2k and we only have a 2 bed terrace in neg equity.

DP's parents are worse, i blame them directly for causing this . They made fortunes from buy to let properties and now honestly look blank faced at us and say 'why are house prices so expensive, it's so hard to buy now'. I want to scream 'because of you, you greedy selfish people - homes are not investments'.

Sorry - i will try not to think about it anymore as i am getting v. angry.

Nobody I know invested well they just bought a house when they needed one. The people to rage at are the ones that remortgaged and pissed all their equity up the wall and ended up with nothing. That's insulting.

I agree with you - and I am one of the lucky (older) ones too. I bought my first place in 1989 when I was 19. Post divorce in '98 I bought somewhere in an area that just rocketed a few years later (SW London) and it was definitely luck and NOT judgement that made me buy the house.

My oldest child is now 18 and I honestly believe that she will ever get on the property ladder close to home (where she wants to be) until she's well over 40 - the cheapest house near us is over £450k, a one bed flat is near enough £200k.

I am thankful every single day for my house, but it is my pension, I have no savings, no back up. However, I also believe that it is MASSIVELY overpriced and I just can not understand how it can possibly be worth what the market has made it.

OP What goes up must come down. Did it not occur to you in 2006 that you were buying at the top. I think you should stop blaming others for your own considerable lack of judgement.

I bought my first flat at the bottom and it tripled in value in five years. I bouth by second property near the top and after two or three years it was worth less than I paid and even though I sold for 40k more than I paid it was 9 years later and no profit was made on that house (interest rate for much of the time were also about 12% and often higher). This house which we bought together again at rock bottom has been incredibly profitable although was very high risk when we purchased.

It seems hard now but you will not know how hard or how good until you look back over 30 years of ownership. You made a grave mistake with your first, that might unravel itself in the fullness of time.

YANBU.

DH and I were tremendously lucky in that we bought our first home very young - I was 22. DH was a very junior chef and I was a waitress and we only needed a £2k deposit. 15yrs later the same flat could only really be bought by a pair of well paid professionals with a £40k deposit. Nuts.

But DH and I were young and in love and wanted to start our life together. It wasn't bought as an investment but as a home.

I'm not really sure that it's reasonable to be with people. Dh and I at the grand age of 23 bought our first house whilst I was pregnant, I got no maternity pay and took a year off to stay home with 1st dd, we lived sometimes on a fiver for a couple of days because we were so broke. When we came to sell the house 3 years later we did very well after putting work in to it and sold it despite the start of the recession at over the asking price and a healthy profit and were able to buy at knock down prices. We are about to put the house on the Market again as it's a good time for us to move, financially rather than practically IYSWIM.

It may look like luck and yes some of it has been but we have constantly read and researched the Market and taken risks that others might not have been willing to take. I really feel for people who were badly advised but I don't think you can be cross with people who profited.

We live in a council estate where about 1/3 of the houses are privately owned. We bought ours and it is currently worth about 130k - what makes me laugh bitterly is that all the council tenants have beautiful homes with new porches, new windows etc whereas all the privately owned ones are falling apart (like ours) because people simply cannot afford to maintain them.

We are both graduates and my parents cannot understand how it is that we are in our early 40s and all we can afford is an ex-council house. They are much better off than we'll ever be despite my dad being an ex-cop and my mum being a SAHM from the age of 21. It is a bugger.

All I can think is that at least we do own our little home and there are 3 bedrooms which is enough for our family. Similarly, I look at my own kids and I think they will be much worse off than we are now. I think that things are going to get worse rather than better.

You are not actually blaming people for buying their own homes, quite legally and at the market rate, for you not owning a house, are you?

I should say first house was bought 7 years ago.

The OP does own a house. She and her husband both seem to be in work, too.

YANBU. I was talking to DP about this only last night. I feel we are of a generation that just missed out. My parents (a shop assistant and a heating engineer) paid their mortgage off on a 3 bed detached house within 5 years of buying it. Me and DP had to buy a wreck in a not so nice area and fund renovations via interest free credit cards. We will be paying off debt until DP is at least 71. I don't see how we will ever manage to move to a nicer house. Meanwhile the buy to letters sit on huge amounts of unearned income gained on the back of people who can't get a deposit together to buy because of the boom and bust pattern in our housing market. It's crazy and the government should have controlled it.

marriedinwhite, did you read my OP? I admit to having been naive and foolish. I didn't know any better. Neither, it seems, did our IFS. I actually do blame us, but I don't see a solution. How were people as inexpert as us allowed to get into this situation?

I reiterate that I'm not angry at, and neither do I blame those who have profit. I wish we'd been fortunate enough to have money to save for a deposit straight out of uni.

can't you just stop paying your pension contributions for a bit

"Did it not occur to you in 2006 that you were buying at the top?"

Why should it?

It didn't occur to the thousands of others who bought that year, or to many of those whose job is was to analyse the markets.

its not always about being in negative equity or stagnant housing markets - we bought in 2008, during a new housing boom in our location , our house was offered with 5% deposit paid by the builders of the new houses, at a mortgage that was 2x our income, we bought a real bargain, had good neighbours, felt blessed, for several years. But with up-keep, repair bills that have added to our mortgage, stagnant salary,etc.. we are in a house we cant really afford to leave, new neighbours replacing good ones, (feel bad saying it but lots of buy to rents have brought in tenants who have been evicted from council houses for anti-social behaviour) and the neighbourhood getting 'scruffy' because local authority are spending more on newer estates, so we're feeling we are going to be stuck in a bad situation, with our house value dropping, even though not negative equity, we cant afford to go to a 'better' part of town.

Sorry Tarty, I mislead you, I have one DD. DH would like another, as would I, but we simply acnnot squeeze another human into this flat, so it is this way I mean expansion.

I am not angry with people. I am angry at a 'system' that allowed this to happen. Anger and resentment are different feelings. I thought the thread title made this clear.

what makes me laugh bitterly is that all the council tenants have beautiful homes with new porches, new windows etc whereas all the privately owned ones are falling apart (like ours) because people simply cannot afford to maintain them

That's exactly what I was trying to say earlier.

And to add insult to injury, our Council Tax went up to pay for the Council homes 'shape up'.

We have been here before though. I remember my colleague being stuck in NE in the late 80s/early 90s. I was lucky and bought in the next crash and the market came up again. It will do again but it's bloody painful waiting it out. I have huge sympathy

Gawf if something seems too good to be true it is.

i also bought in 2006 with 100% mortgage, we still have no equity in our house because prices dropped, so we cant move or remortgage, but we own our home and are steadily paying it off, the mortgage costs little more than rent would and at some point prices will go up again. Im glad that we bought when we could get 100% mortgage because we would have no chance of saving the big deposit and fees needed today.

If I hadn't have been lucky enough to buy in 1995, I could never be a SAHM.

Our Mortgage is £300 per month but to rent this house would cost £1,200 per month.

It's mental and I fear my 3 boys will never get on the property ladder.

I'm mid 40s and do feel that it is a very diff story for younger people now. Me and DH (then boyfriend) bought a lovely flat in the early 90's when we were only 23. He was a printer, I was a secretary, so very normal average wages and we were able to borrow the money and take our pick of properties with ease. It is just so different now and I don't know how our children will ever get on the property ladder.

Our flat did go into negative equity during the 8 years we were there but by the time we sold it had increased. We bought a house which then doubled in value in approx 10 years.

i still think owning property is better than renting though, long term at least you will own it eventually unlike rent.