Aibu to think that "suspended adulthood" is going to lead to large problems?

[BlancheBlue]

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/22/young-people-living-in-a-suspended-adulthood-finds-research

Just this really. There was a telling comment about this article with the ever increasing age profile of parents the chance of children knowing grandparents is going to be remote.

I think lots of the boomer generation really fail to understand this. Whenever it is said it is tough for young people que loads of "well I worked my arse off and owned a house by the time I was 21" type comments.

EllyMay - do you really believe that the older generation has done nothing for the younger generation? A very biased view.

We're early 30s professionals, finally eating ok (both above average) but we have 2 young kids. For years we've haemorrhaged money paying childcare AND rent. On our own we would have live in a gritty studio ad eaten beans - but with children in tow there is only so min you can cut corners (and no we don't holiday have posh phones or a tv) what else can we cut back?! Now DS1 is at school we are trapped renting in an increasingly unaffordable area, to give him the stability to stay in his beloved school. I save as hard as I can but with the costar rise in house prices it frequently doesn't seem worth even trying

Earning! Not eating (though we did have some rough heating or eating years)

And yes, we are looking at moving north (or anywhere) so we don't have to move house every year.

There's been barriers to owning your own home with each generation.
it isn't a competition as to who had it worse, it's just different reasons.

I can remember as far back as 15 years when people in small villages in East Anglia were priced out of living in the area they were born and bred.
It was a shame to know that the dc my children grew up with would be forced to move away. The problem then was people buying second homes for holidays, they didn't even contribute to the local community.

During my late teens/early twenties Thatcher annihilated the industry in the North, people retrained in finance and moved to London/ South if they were lucky.
I'll never forget reading a local paper when visiting my parents, an article on the amount of young men committing suicide because they could no longer work as unemployment was so high. She brought in right to buy and then hiked the interest rates. Some people didn't stand a chance and lost the lot.
Reading further I realised these were my friends from school
It made my hardship of having to come off grid pale into insignificance.

My point, there are always barriers, you have to live with the conditions that exist, you can't change them so you have to make sacrifices and find a way which does work.
We can't always have what we want or "It all", whatever that may be, it's a myth.

EllyMay - do you really believe that the older generation has done nothing for the younger generation? A very biased view.

You have put words into my mouth. I am reacting to some of the ludicrous, condescending, spiteful comments being made by posters on this thread to the younger generation on this thread struggling to get established in life.

Actually lol'ed at the comment from another person about there being no decent housing in Manchester under 200k. What a crock of shit.

My point, there are always barriers, you have to live with the conditions that exist, you can't change them so you have to make sacrifices and find a way which does work.

This is true. To a point.

There always have been and always will be challenges. And no individual can change the broader dynamics on their own.

However, we don't live in a Hobbesian nightmare. We make choices through the ballot box. Some of this mess is the result of the tax structure, regulation, planning system, etc. The purpose of government is to tackle broad problems that we cannot fix individually.

re: the sodding iphone/house purchase fallacy that comes up every single time on these threads:

a) only a small minority will actually splash out on the latest iphone as soon as it's released. Most will wait until their contracts end and/or they can get a good deal

b) it's not £50 a month compared to £0 a month expenditure on phones. The vast majority of people, not just young people, have smart phones now, so, its £50 compared to, say, £30, so actually only £20 p/m saving

c) Paying even £50 for a top quality smartphone with all the features means you don't have to pay for those features separately as you did years ago, so you save the hundreds or thousands you would have spent on: (delete as applicable) books, sat nav, camera, ipod/cd/vinyl player, laptop, phone call costs (because you use skype etc instead), diary, voice recorder (for work), even a tv for people who use their phones for streaming. This is both convenient for younger people who, if they rent, have to move often, and usually don't have a huge amount of space for storage, and ultimately not uneconomical.

Secondly, as others have said £4000 (although actually as I pointed out it will be more like £3000 unless they go without a phone completely) isn't even the 5% deposit needed even on a cheap first timer property at £100,000 (of which there aren't any in some areas of the country) - before you even start thinking about solicitors fees, removal costs, insurance, etc.

Also, don't forget that a deposit isn't the only thing preventing younger people from buying a house - lots aren't on permanent contracts which mean even if you had a deposit banks might not lend to you, especially on a single salary.

Student loan repayments are also now considered for the affordability criteria when applying for a mortgage, so even if you're on a decent wage if you are paying £80 p/m in repayments you're less likely to get accepted than someone earning exactly the same wage as you with no loan.

The people oh so helpfully advocating that everyone should just move to the cheaper areas (still PMSL at that 4k claim on page 1!) invariably fail to realise that the reason these areas are cheap is precisely because of people doing that. So even setting aside the obvious problem of finding the work to pay for them once you arrive, by definition they wouldn't be cheap if demand were higher. They're cheap because not many people want them. More people trying to move to cheaper areas would rapidly make them not cheap.

I live in the north btw. And I absolutely advocate that the best option for high quality of life for individuals is to try and get yourself on a reasonable professional salary, ideally national scale, outside the south. But it's not the answer for anything other than a small minority. Because we have a national housing problem. One that isn't going to be solved by people not getting Iphones and moving somewhere very cheap where they won't necessarily get a job.

Stubble

me too, Manchester is really good for house prices my ds1 is just doing another one up and after this one he'll have enough to buy their dream home, which will be nowhere near 200k.
I suppose if you are looking at posh area and 4 beds you could spend this, but starter homes from 60k round here, no worse for crime than anywhere else.

My point, there are always barriers, you have to live with the conditions that exist, you can't change them so you have to make sacrifices and find a way which does work

That's the spirit! Let's not draw attention to economic factors causing social problems. Let's not campaign, or ask our MPs, or highlight or publicise research about it, or discuss the underlying factors. And for god's sake let's not hold our political leaders to account, demand change or heaven forbid use the ballot box to try to effect change.

Much better to put up, shut up and wait for the problems to spread further.

gilly ssshhh don't tell the masses!! Otherwise we'll be inundated with those from that London / South region and tbh I've had enough of bbc luvvies moving in on our road

It's all a slum, with whippets and pigeon fanciers and stuff

jassy

I let others do that, I'd rather just get on with it tbh. I don't moan and do nothing about it though. I'd love it if all the moaners and wingers actually did something about it, that would mean real change.

Stubble
They wouldn't be prepared to slum it, their heels couldn't cope with the cobbles. There may be huge language barriers too, best stay where they are

Intergenerational fighting isn’t going to help when the culprits behind high house prices are government and banks.

The younger generation should be pushing the government to allow limited building on ugly parts of the green belt around London and other cities and to encourage more council housing, more social housing and more large-scale rented housing to supplement private housebuilding.

Jobs are in the cities but the lack of supply of new housing just forces up rents, which has led to the expansion of the buy-to-let sector. Banks are happier to lend to landlords than first-time buyers because they can put up bigger deposits and use their own home as security for the loan.

We need landlords, but you have to ask how many is too many? It’s strange that as buy-to-let has grown, rents haven’t gone down but way up in most places. It seems the more young people have to rent, the higher rents go and then the higher house prices go and more people have to rent.

Meanwhile, the emergency low interest rates are just pushing people to take on more debt and pensioners to invest their savings in buy-to-let. It would be better for the government to ban buy-to-let on existing properties and allow pensioners to invest their money in a massive housebuilding programme for a decent tax-free return.

Garden

Have you and dh ever considered developing your own property. I'm not talking auction as I know you'll need a mortgage, but maybe one up from this.
Only a suggestion, not sure if it would work for you, but has certainly helped my ds1 (25) He knew nothing when he started out, but will tackle most things now except electric and gas. He just brings in qualified tradesmen for this. Atm, he and his gf are living in one room in a house with hardly anything, they have no kids yet and manage to do house at night, weekends and annual leave.
They say this is the last one now and they've made enough to buy their own house outright now.
They are both low income too.
Obviously not for everyone, but thought it worth a mention.

I let others do that, I'd rather just get on with it tbh. I don't moan and do nothing about it though. I'd love it if all the moaners and wingers actually did something about it, that would mean real change.

How do you know they're not? Why assume they're 'moaners and whingers?' Is t just than name calling is easier/more comfortable, rather than admitting that because it doesn't affect you, you're not interested in doing anything to tackle inequality?

Like I've said, it doesn't affect me, and my kids will benefit from my good fortune. I'm still talking about it, writing to representatives, debunking myths and hyperbole in threads on the internet so that the people who are affected can get a fair hearing and aren't done over by an 'I'm all right, Jack' culture from those who did well on housing before them at their expense or live in an area where it isn't a concern (yet).

Sorry, on rereading, that was unnecessarily ranty. But it baffles me how someone who questions whether it's really ok to expect them to move from, say, Crawley to Rotherham, leave their life, give up a career they love to retrain in something available there, simply to own a house when 10-15 years ago they would have been able to do so locally is automatically a 'moaner' or a 'whinger'.

Rather than someone saying 'this situation is seriously fucked up.' Which, let's be frank, it is.

Ely May - my last words on this thread - Comments about tin baths etc were also patronising and spiteful. A pity.

Of course I'm not doing anything because it doesn't affect me. I'd say a good percentage of the country's ills don't affect me, the same as you. Do you campaign for them all? You are lucky to have the time.

My kids won't benefit from my good fortune, I raised them to be independent not moan and whinge about what's not fair, that you aren't handed things on a plate. The difference between needs and wants, how not to be materialistic and greedy, our values are obviously different.

Comments about tin baths etc were also patronising and spiteful. A pity.

If a bit of reciprocity helps to make clear how unpleasant the Starbucks and mobile phone comments were, all to the good.