to feel pissed off with selfish 'baby boomer' generation

[hermionepotter]

this was in response to a newspaper article where people surveyed wanted interest rates to go up. I could be BU I know. But it won't be those paying massive mortgages and debts who'll be wanting rates to go up, will be older people wanting interest on their savings and sod everyone else. So am I BU?

I don't agree i think higher rates would cause falls as so many people have over borrowed. Lots of older people have also remortgaged to live it up I know several who released capital while rates are low and have bought holiday ones etc. I do think 5% rates would cause carnage. I also think landlords need regulation and you shouldn't be able to buy a second home with a mortgage. 2 nd ime should be taxed and have higher costs to deter people. And btl should be taxed full stop

Noddy, we similarly worked our arses off, continue to do so with an expensive education that we have had to fund and not got an amazing return on. My DP is an Architect and I did work in London but that only afforded us a 1 bedroom flat when we were starting out and we had our 1st child. We were the lucky ones as nearly all of my friends rent! Baby boomers do not have a monopoly on hardwork - how ridiculous!

Hermione: a flat in Liverpool for £25k
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44096513.html

House prices are ridiculous in the SE, but there is cheap property available in other areas of the country, but no doubt most professional people living in Liverpool would turn their noses up at that flat.

Could someone please explain to me how IR going up will make home more affordable please?

I think the assumption is that, as interest rates rise, so do mortgage repayments which will lead to repossessions among homeowners who can no longer afford their higher mortgages. A flood of repossessed properties onto the market would then lead to reduce house prices as there would be more houses on the market to chose from and also, mortgages will be less affordable so house prices would need to drop to nearer the historical levels of x per salary.

Vworpvworp £242 may be 'average' but it's still possible to get a property for half that sum in many parts of the UK.

I don't think they do! but I do think some people are unrealistic. Prices need to come down end of story. How that happens who knows? Successive govts have built whole manifestos on increasing prices as this country is built on debt. Some one will have to pay probably those who over borrowed but I think all deserve a home not just a select few. Price increases help me in work but I still think its wrong.

Home ownership: Did earlier generations have it easier?

"Jo Foy and her husband Tim, a police officer, arrived in February 2013.

They paid £325,000 for the house, and their mortgage is £1,500 a month.

That price represents a rise since 1964 of roughly 7,000%.

By contrast, inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) has risen by 1,617% over the same period.

Or put another way, if house prices had only risen by general inflation, Jo and Tim would have been able to buy a house here for just over £73,000."

vworp my DS is doing pretty much the (non degree & non A level) job I was doing at his age and his starting pay was £18554. Mine was £3000.

Averages are all very well but we've never had a house worth anywhere near those figures quoted on your link, despite living in the SE for 27 years. £242k for an average house?

chunderella, how do you think earlier generations saved? We stayed with our parents until we got married. Of course you can't save for a deposit when you are paying rent and everything else. But society has changed and people don't want to do that any more.

Of course YABU it is normal for people to want policies/ rates to serve themselves well.
I bet you will want this when you are older and have savings, its swings and roundabouts.
I want interest rates to go up, hell I do. At the same time I have paid a mortgage with interest rates at 15.5% so I think I deserve some interest on my savings.

Yes you are BU.

You're being played by an establishment which is gearing up to make it politically acceptable to cut benefits to pensioners in the same way they've made cuts to other vulnerable groups like the disabled.

At the moment it's still a politically unpopular proposition to leave pensioners to starve to death in their flats in their own shit because they can't get to the loo but have been ruled as not needing home-care, or to turf them out of their council flats because they can't afford the bedroom tax. Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable to cut sickness pay to a cancer patient under the pretence that they are fit for work or to throw a family with a terminally ill parent out of their home because it was ruled that the extra room needed for the dialysis machine was a luxury. Now it's acceptable because the government and their media have managed to make voters who aren't yet disabled, hate disabled people. Now they're working on making those of us who aren't yet old, hate the old. And some of us will be stupid enough to fall for it.

A one bed flat across the road from me is currently 199k basic needs a bit of work now central heating only electric storage heaters. That is about 10x the average wage for those that have jobs. It needs to change higher interest rates would be a start. It would also send a message of saving being a good thing and stop credit being seen as a lifestyle choice.

Not just Liverpool Bristol.

Now it's acceptable because the government and their media have managed to make voters who aren't yet disabled, hate disabled people

I disagree with that. It was the DM showcasing some really blatent fraud/fecklessness/entitlement among a minority (note the word minority) of claimants that turned public feeling against benefit claimants. The Govt has just capitalised on that.

Basil- elderly people in hospital are dying from lack of food and dehydration. The population in general do not care about elderly people in the main, they're mostly invisible.

Must add, I don't think house prices are too high, except perhaps in the South, but you don't have to live where you can't afford to.
We stayed with friends until we saved for a deposit and ds1 as a baby, we had 2 small rooms and shared their bathroom and kitchen.
3x dhs salary bought our first house, interest rates were much higher and we managed just about.
3x average salary of one person would still buy a starter home.
Property isn't priced too high, people want too much to start with these days, and aren't prepared to start off at the bottom.

May I just point out that I remember when my parents mortgage went up to 15 % or higher. However, they bought the house for about £9k in 1980, so, you know, haven't done too badly out of it.(Probably worth about £300k now)
It's true that this government are pitching poor against not-so-poor, which nicely shifts focus from us blaming the fat cats who have really fucked us over, but it IS a fact that the baby boomers had it all, compared to those younger than them.

And I'd turn my nose up at that flat in L'pool. I have actually lived in shitty rough places, and I know what it's like to sleep with a hammer under my bed, listening to drug dealers outside my window. No ta.

Why should people who have been prudent (savers, not all of whom are home owners) put up with low interest rates so that those who overextended themselves with mortgages they cannot actually afford don't have to take responsibility for their actions. Most people understand that when you take out a mortgage there is a possibility that interest rates will go up at some point over 25 years. Overextending yourself with a mortgage you cannot afford is a risk. Those that do not understand that should not be taking out mortgages!

The population in general do not care about elderly people in the main, they're mostly invisible

And the general ageism in here on MN isn't exactly anything to be proud of either!

morethanchristmas PLEASE explain how property is not too high- I linked upthread- 3.5 x salary= £46k, average house price £242k

That is a shortfall of £196,000

Cheapest 1-bed flat in my area (a long way from the SE) is £90k, so a salary of £28k p.a. to afford.

chunder- I know more than a few people in their 60s, most definitely boomers, that have alzheimers, and are 'elderly', fully reliant on others to care for them.

I know several people who will be in trouble if rates rise but they are not prepared to live in a less expensive area. If you can only afford your house at current rates you can't afford it full stop. I read somewhere that virtually no one has overpaid while the rates have been low so they have had extra cash and the enjoyment of that.