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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think these baby boomers are missing the point?

999 replies

Hundredacrewoods · 28/01/2018 08:55

I grew up in an area where house prices have quadrupled since 2000. I consider this an intergenerational equity issue. Whenever the topic of house prices and 'millennials' comes up with my parents' generation, all I hear is how hard they worked and how much they sacrificed to get on the property ladder. AIBU to think that they're missing the point? No one is denying that they worked hard and sacrificed. The point is that if they worked just as hard today, and made the same sacrifices, it wouldn't be anywhere near enough.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
14
BiologyMatters · 28/01/2018 08:56

Ok so what do you expect them to do about it?

blatblatblat · 28/01/2018 08:56

YANBU

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 28/01/2018 08:57

Maybe they could stop harping on about how hard they worked as if they are the only ones to do so? They got lucky that’s all.

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince · 28/01/2018 09:00

It was the legacy of Thatcher that screwed the Millennials not their parents.

What would you suggest your parents do? I remember paying interest rates of 15% on a mortgage, and being unemployed a lot. I didn’t have a go at my parents about this...

I’m not even a Boomer, but this shit is just so boring.....

blatblatblat · 28/01/2018 09:01

BiologyMatters vote out the Tory government, ideally. But they won't.

Failing that they could do the maths, figure out that no, many younger people are completely priced out of home ownership no matter how hard they work and save, and develop some empathy for them.

MaisyPops · 28/01/2018 09:05

They got lucky. Wage to house prices was nowhere near what it is now. They bought cheap property and when it went up in value they got lucky. They also had final salary pensions, free university etc too.

Fine. They got lucky. Good for them.

But it really doesn't take much to not bang on about how tough it was for them when they are sitting on a house mortgage free which has gone up 10 times in value whilst living on a final salary pension/early retirement package making stupid comments about how 20/30 somethings would have a house if only they didn't have a Costa once a week.

BeyondThePage · 28/01/2018 09:05

The point is that if they worked just as hard today, and made the same sacrifices, it wouldn't be anywhere near enough.

Sometimes it would though - we did things like buy before having kids - so you would buy a hovel with a mate - so you could move out of home.

I shared a flat opposite this one for 3 years - same layout, same lack of space, same grotty basement location - 2 of us lived here. Price was only 21k cheaper 22 years ago.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-63721456.html

I do not see that "flat" as unachievable for 2 young people starting out. People don't want to make the sacrifice sometimes.

MaisyPops · 28/01/2018 09:06

Should add. I'm in my 20s and a homeowner.
If i lived in another part of the country, my teacher salary would not have got ke a house.

Believeitornot · 28/01/2018 09:07

YANBU

It’s easy for people’s to live in denial instead actually sitting down and working out how someone who is on a salary of £x earn stars £y after tax, has outgoings of £z and can save very little.

You would literally have to spell it out for them or draw pretty pictures and even then they’d say “well they’re frittering money on avocados” Hmm

I can only surmise that they’re idiots.

Cheby · 28/01/2018 09:08

15% interest is much more manageable when houses cost a much lower proportion of average annual income.

Baby boomers should recognise how easy they have had it, comparatively, and stop trying to pretend they didn’t. A little compassion for a generation mostly unable to get onto the housing ladder or leave Home until their mid 20s wouldn’t go amiss.

Original poster
Hundredacrewoods · 28/01/2018 09:08

Thank you PPs. A bit of self awareness and acknowledgement that luck played a factor is all I want (or them not 'banging on' about their hard work, as Maisy put it!). Also I'm in Australia so this is one that can't be blamed on Thatcher, Emoji;)

OP posts:
HamishBamish · 28/01/2018 09:09

I agree OP. My parents are nothing but sympathetic towards young people trying to get onto the property ladder. They worked hard too, but are smart enough to realise that it was possible for them to do that in a way it isn’t now. I don’t blame my parents for the situation, but in turn heh don’t male ridiculous comments about young people not being willing to save etc either.

JJPP123 · 28/01/2018 09:09

Of course. The house my mother is valued such that even now, at the end of her career, she'd not get a mortgage on it without stumping up a 60% deposit however she bought it 20 years ago with just a 10% deposit and easily obtained a mortgage. I think a lot of her generation acknowledge this though and that is why they're now helping their children with deposits when they can.

Believeitornot · 28/01/2018 09:10

@BeyondThePage

And how does that apply to someone who works in London.

Do all people who work in London have to leave London to buy a home?

Nurses, teachers and other key workers have few choices if they want to live in London. Buying a £50k flat in Gloucestershire isn’t the answer.

BeyondThePage · 28/01/2018 09:11

15% interest is much more manageable when houses cost a much lower proportion of average annual income.

People say that, but when you look at the reality of it for some of us - 76% of take home pay for 4 months... LITERALLY beans from a tin time.

Original poster
Hundredacrewoods · 28/01/2018 09:12

Thank you for addressing the old 15% interest rates trope, Cheby. Should go without saying that 15% of 200k is more manageable than 6% of 800k...

OP posts:
missymisdemeanor · 28/01/2018 09:12

Dh and I lived in a bedsit and worked full time and evening jobs for 6 years to get together a deposit for our house, which was derrilict when we bought it. My younger cousins constantly tell me that we had it made but they wouldn’t ever live the way we did - and I don’t blame them it was grim!

NotSuchASmugMarriedNow1 · 28/01/2018 09:14

Yawn. It's nothing to do with generation.

You just need to buy a property BEFORE you have have kids and pay stuipid amounts of private rent - it's not rocket science.

WonderLime · 28/01/2018 09:15

we did things like buy before having kids

What an odd thing to say. People are having children later in life now rather than the baby boomer ages, and that’s partly because it’s not achievable to have an income to support a family until later in life.

Cake20189 · 28/01/2018 09:15

Well I think people spend their money on other things now than they used to. Mobile phones, iPads, travelling, takeaways, eating out, daily coffees. This all adds up. My friend eats out every lunchtime, eats out for dinner 5 times a week, spends all her money on the latest face creams, clothes every pay day and goes on loads of holidays every year then moans that she can’t save up for a deposit for a house... there’s no denying that the gap between house prices and wages has increased but I do think people are more frivolous now. My parents never had an iPhone 8 or an iPad, they didn’t travel or eat out every day. They saved and bought thier own home in their 20s. I did the same and bought my own home in my 20s which was only a couple of years ago. It can be done

BeyondThePage · 28/01/2018 09:15

Nurses, teachers and other key workers have few choices if they want to live in London. Buying a £50k flat in Gloucestershire isn’t the answer.

but people living in Gloucestershire are whinging on about us baby boomers too.

Every area has its problems. I do not choose to live in London, I choose to live in Gloucestershire (700 miles away from my childhood home in Scotland) because there was plenty of work and the cost/standard of living is good and can be improved over time without too much struggle.

LadyBunnysWig · 28/01/2018 09:15

We're in the process of buying our house and our deposit is more than my parents first house price. They paid £20000.
When I've been speaking with my dad and talking about all the expenses we have he just says 'well we've all had to do it'.
I've pointed out that proportionately his wage vs house prices was far more realistic.

My dad refuses to accept that it's harder to buy a house these days.

blueskyinmarch · 28/01/2018 09:16

Me and DH are baby boomers and have done very well with housing as we managed to buy a house (low prices and zero interest mortgage) when we first married in our early 20s and have never rented. We didn't work hard for it, we just got it because DH worked for a life assurance company and it was a job related benefit. We now own a lovely house in a lovely area but we have never been smug about this.

Out DD1 on the other hand, at age 25, earns well but lives in London and knows she is unlikely to ever be able to buy a house, no matter how hard she works. She knows that is just how it is. She is aware she could buy a house of she moved elsewhere but she loves her job and London. I don't think she resents our good luck having been born at a different time, she gets things are not the same now.

She and DD2 will be quids in when we pop our clogs though!

GreenSeededGrape · 28/01/2018 09:16

Well Hundred you had me until you said you were in Aus. My friends at home are debt junkies, on a scale that blows my mind.

I've lived in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and talking about friends in all 3 states.

Everyone wants a 4 bed detached with theatre room, 2 new cars, sahm partner.

We are moving home soon and friends were generally Shock when we said things like we'll make do with one car. I also grew up in the country so know about no PT.

Our parents had less shit to spend their money. Most didn't take time out to travel the world or get bogged down in Uni debt.

I have a house in London and get told how lucky I am. Luck plays a part with everyone's lives, a bit of common sense also goes a long way.

RedForFilth · 28/01/2018 09:16

I think the people harping on about how people in their 20s could buy if they sacrificed and worked hard like they did are just unintelligent and don't understand or refuse to believe what it is like now.
There's not enough housing to go round as it is, rents are ridiculous and I don't know anyone who would want to live at home til they can afford to buy or who's parent would let them!! The majority of my circle were kicked out by 16 or 18. I'm 27 btw.