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.

It's not just London and the south east, it's really, really not. Nationally, the average house price has gone up and up compared to the average salary. All the moralising about expensive phones and nights out doesn't change the fact that houses are more expensive to buy. And when they're more expensive to buy, they're more expensive to rent - meaning that it's even harder to save up a deposit if you want to get out of the shitty, insecure world of private renting in the U.K.

There's no doubt that it's hard 53rd - it definitely is. But it's not impossible, it just takes sacrifice.

There is anther thng to take into account though.
It's all nice to say 'just move somewhere cheaper'.

but moving often means moving away from your network of friends and relatives. This might well prove really hard and comes with its own issues.
The area might also well be the sort of place you hate (eg the countryside when you are a town person or the other way around).

Of course you can say 'but that's part of the efforts you need to do'.
But, having done something quite similar myself, I would say that the effect on your quality of life is such that, actually, you should be thinking about it too. Living somewhere because that's what you can afford but somewhere you never settle into (which means isolation etc...) might not be the right way to live your life either.

I agree with that Mammouth, but if that's the case then you have accept that you're sacrificing the opportunity to own a house in order to be close to family/friends. There's no point in complaining about it - there is a solution but you don't want to take it.

Yes houses are more expensive to buy, that's why if you are serious about it you make sacrifices.
I do think the iphone's and other entertainment costs, standard of living that some young people have stop them from buying a house.
They have monthly outgoings and live month to month, if they can afford the payment they take it on.
So many people have credit cards and pay it off every month, rather than doing without and saving up like we had to do.

It's not just London and the south east, it's really, really not. Nationally, the average house price has gone up and up compared to the average salary. All the moralising about expensive phones and nights out doesn't change the fact that houses are more expensive to buy. And when they're more expensive to buy, they're more expensive to rent - meaning that it's even harder to save up a deposit if you want to get out of the shitty, insecure world of private renting in the U.K.

The price has gone up, but the cost has not.

As I said in a previous post - in the 90s - after the scarey 13% interest rate period - we had rates in the region of 6%. Repayments on 65k then are the same as repayments on 100k now. Credit is so cheap now - 100k mortgage will cost you around 500 quid.

t4 Not much happening on the daily mail forums today so you are posting here?

Is anything I've posted untrue?

There isn't always enough to 'sacrifice', Sparrowhawk. Many, many people can't save up a £20k deposit just by cutting back on frivolities.

Mammoth

I can see your point, but that's exactly what it took for us to get on the property ladder. It did come with lots of problems and was tough, but we had to make sacrifices or face renting forever probably.

Rightmove - Manchester - houses only within 20 miles. Max price 80k - so 4k is your 5% deposit. Want to guess how many listed?^

OK, have you checked how many of them are actually houses? Search by "lowest price first". Industrial estate. Shop leases. Parking spaces. How many are mortgageable? How many are cash only? How many are investor property only?

I'll give you a clue: lots and lots.

TheSparrow where I live, for £400 a month rent, you get a one bedroom flat or a studio. You wont find anything cheaper than that, bar a student accommodation (just done a search on RightMove).
We own a 3 bed detached house and spend the same amount on our mortgage.

THIS is what stops young people from buying. Because even in the same location and going for something much smaller etc... The cost of renting is prohibitive compare to a mortgage and stops people to start going on the property ladder. Once you are on it, then yes, you can save, make plans, buy something bigger etc...
But saving the deposit is much harder in the first place.

That's also why so many young adults stay at home once they've finished their studies to try a and save money for said deposit. I've also known adults with 2/3 dcs doing that and going back to live with their parents for two+ years.
That's hard. hard for the people doing it but also hard for the parents having to cope with that many more people in their own house TBH.

Not everyone is best to move out of the SE. Not if all your family are there and it's all you've ever known and you hate change.
But if just SOME more people would move north it would help the north and the south and the whole country. We are not "full", we are just all squished into a tiny area of the land we have.

I'm 24, was lucky enough to get council housing with cheap rent.

I've accepted that I'll probably never own my own home. We'd never be able to get the deposit together, and afford family living.

"I afforded it by taking a second job, living in a shithole of a shared flat, no holidays.. "
We could maybe have done this, had ds not come along when I was 18. By the time I'd be able to go back to work full time, it would be too late for us. We'd probably still be paying the mortgage off in our pension years, so what's the point? Ds would probably have his own digs by then anyway.

We also can't drive. Though dp (31) would like to give it a go in the new year. Car insurance would be just about doable I think. (And unlike a mortgage, we could drop it after a year if things got tight).

I don't really understand the obsession with London. Most people don't live there and buying there has always been out of most people's reach.

Nb I actually do live in London

t4 your total lack of appreciation of the challenges and issues facing young people and wild claims like "spending £400 a month on socialising" makes you sound like a Norman Tebbit ("get on your bike") wannabe. Hope nothing every disrupts your seemingly perfect life and situation.

And buying a house isn't "easy" in a major northern or Scottish city. It can be tough. But it is achievable as a couple both on average salary.

My ex husband has to be able to get to London easily several times a week for work. My home town is in the midlands and I can't afford to live there. I moved somewhere affordable and decidedly unglamorous, and i still can't afford to rent somewhere for my daughter and I. When the lease is up on our family home, I have no idea what we'll do.

In the mean time I have our parents berating us for not buying somewhere stable for our daughter to live and in the next breath moaning about the difficulties they're running in to buying their third holiday home. But hey, they managed to buy a house aged 21, so why can't I afford it?

OK, have you checked how many of them are actually houses? Search by "lowest price first". Industrial estate. Shop leases. Parking spaces. How many are mortgageable? How many are cash only? How many are investor property only?

All are residential - a handful were shared ownership so a 4 bed new build for 77.5k for 50% ownership. of them - as I filtered on houses only.

If you take the houses filter off the number shoots up , and yes you find some stuff in there that's retail, building lots etc. That's why you filter.

Are we trying really hard to try and prove there aren't affordable things out there?

There isn't always enough to 'sacrifice', Sparrowhawk. Many, many people can't save up a £20k deposit just by cutting back on frivolities.

Outside of London who the hell needs a 20k deposit as a firs time buyer? And why would you think as a young 20 something you're entitled to a 400k home in London one of the most expensive cities on earth as a first time buyer?

Don'tyou believe me, lots of us don't get it either.

^
And in case anyone thinks I was privileged, our first house was an unmodernised mid terrace in Newham. We spent our first year bathing in the kitchen until we put a bathroom in. Our furniture was very 2nd hand. Even then, to get on the housing ladder, you had to put up with a much less than satisafctory situation.^

Jaxhog we tried to do exactly this. They wouldn't mortgage it. It was a complete no-go (we had a proper strategy to do the works).

We bought ten years ago and I think we're pretty much the last of the 100% mortgage brigade. We couldn't even qualify for a mortgage now though even with a ten percent deposit due to all the extra restrictions that are in place to assess you r repayment ability.

there is a real gap in the "market" for a political party to talk to these people but the challenge is getting them to the ballot box.

Blanche this is true. Plus whenever there is a thread like this boomers claim that they ardently support the younger generation and are against the disadvantages younger people face. If that's true surely they would vote for such a party? For the interests of their children and grandchildren?

It would be very interesting to see if they would put their money where their mouths are and vote against their bus passes, winter fuel allowances and the triple lock for free education and better housing.

I wouldn't hold my breath though.

barbarian 'Not knowing your grandparents was pretty common in the past too - on account of people not living so long.'

Sorry I don't think that is true, people actually started having children younger so knowing your grandparents was not unusual. As an example my mum is in her 60s and she knew her great-grandmother, I'm in my 40s and I knew my great grand parents and my DS and DD are 14 and 8 respectively and they know their great granddad - the only reason they didn't know them on my dad's side and her father's side is because they lived in a different country.

Just saying

T4 - have you looked at mortgages recently? You can't get 5% mortgages. So people are looking much higher

£390k for a house in the north is marvellous, but I would earn £0 out of London or a city, and Dh would earn around 50% if that. So if we earne da 1/4 of what we do now we couldn't afford the north either.

Most banks only let you borrow x3 household income now. So if London workers used to earn say £75k each (£150k a year), and in the north one can't work, one on half, then household income now only £37.5k. That's £112,000 maximum mortgage they can get. Not helpful

Oh Dh has uni debt still, and that is £350 a month automatically taken. Those now on £9k a year fees, plus rent, food etc are looking at a £50k debt at the end, which they then add interest into making it hard to repay back as they are adding money as you take it off. So people will need to allocate £500-1000 a month just to pay back uni, so need to be on good salaries

Lots of small properties around here in region of £120k. Very nice area with jobs.
If you have a job, save and buy young enough, you can buy if you wish. Some do rent while saving- we have had several in our properties.
We bought when it was so called cheap. We had to have a family member be guarantor as we didn't earn enough for the cheapest house we could find. It was a struggle at first.
My DC on the oh have a deposit set aside which DS is already adding to so are luckier than us. Plus our DC can live at home while they save we have plenty of room. Whereas I couldn't wait to leave our overcrowded home so rented before buying.
Most of the older baby boomers that I know had awful poverty stricken childhoods, unlike those generations that followed. I don't begrudge them anything.

Rebel - not everyone can get a guarantor