To wonder why the older generation can't admit that things are harder for millennials?

[ExtraPineappleExtraHam]

So we just had our meeting with a mortgage advisor. They will lend my dp £45,000 (not even enough for a bedsit in this town) and so I'm not even bothering to do mine as I earn less. We work very hard (44 hours and 27 hours) we just have low paid jobs and pay childcare for two under 5's!
I talked to my stepdad who compared it to when he had to borrow £36,000 to buy his first house in the early eighties. That was 3 times his salary and his wife stayed at home. He paid it off in six years. It's not the same. He was given a mortgage which was enough to buy a nice house in an area close to family and where he worked. He didn't have to have a bank manager saying 'well if you move to Wales or up north?' He didn't have to rent forever and have nothing to pass down to his children. It's not the same!

There are still basic rentals available for the more modest budget but because a fairly large proportion of students now want and expect ensuite facilities, the number of those properties available has dwindled

It didnt happen that way round where I live. The private halls and digs didnt hang on to find out if students would still chose them before dying out slowely a few years after the uni let building spree was over.

They all closed up to the student market when the new uni lets opened and moved on to pastures new. The students never had the choice. So they never rejected the choice.

It was a big upheaval for the towns economy at the time.

@mummyoflittledragon

That’s very true. Our 33k mortgage in mid 90’s was a little over four hundred pounds. According to money supermarket, you could now borrow 100k on an initial reduced rate of 1.74% for the ridiculously low sum of £411. That’s three times the amount!

That sounds about right!

And also, remember £400 to £500 was a lot more then (in say, 1992,) than it is now. The equivalent today would be about £900-£950. In the mid 1990's, I was part time, and DH worked full time in an office, and we weren't massive earners. And at some points during that time, our mortgage took 50% of our joint income.

So as I said, we really weren't any better off than the millennials today.

Why would you see a mortgage advisor and not include your sale ry?

I know plenty of people with History/French degrees that have highly paid jobs which have nothing to do with History it French etc, so I think you're talking rubbish about only being qualified for admin/teaching.

Yes, house prices are much higher than they were 25 years ago. It was possible for one person to save a deposit and get a mortgage on a small house. I've kicked myself many times for not doing so...luckily DH did. But that was my failing and I take full responsibility, I don't whinge about it.

I was looking at alist of what we earned and spent in 87 I found by chance when clearing out an old box. A quarter of our joint net salaries went on childcare so that is half of one salary. I think that's quite cheap but then we had an untrained person to come to the house. It seems very old fashioned - home brew. stamps, photos, and even "library fines" I added into it! Batteries, piano tuning, bike repairs, shampoo gets its own category (no conditioner we could not afford it). So hard to compare different times.

t seems very old fashioned - home brew. stamps, photos, and even "library fines" I added into it! Batteries, piano tuning, bike repairs, shampoo gets its own category (no conditioner we could not afford it). So hard to compare different times.

I would rather do without the piano tuning than the conditioner. The pain of my dry brittle hair is too much.

It is funny how things change though. I remember days of the milkman etc.

Not read all the thread, but back in 2000 when we were buying a house (so 18 years ago )it was always 3 times the mortgage to buy if just one of you earning. Or 2,5 times the mortgage if you both worked and got a good wage between you.
So not seeing why it's "harder." Seems like it's the same as it's ever been.

And actually OP your post makes me bloody angry. My friend who are 17 was committed to an asylum because she was a lesbian, would not agree that she had it easier than millenials now days. Or my friend I had years ago who had cerberal palsy and was sent to a special school and taught little, in spite of being bright. Etc etc

What? I'm sorry, but what does this have to do with the OP's post?! Are we not allowed to post with problems now in case someone out there has it worse and it'll make people feel bloody angry on reading others predicaments, whether they be perceived non existent problems or not depending on the poster?!
Any problems is worth posting to get perspective out of our own bubble and seeing other points of view.

For my parents first house they had to go on a waiting list as mortgages weren't readily available. In the 70s and 80s many many people went through redundancies. My dad lost his job 3 weeks after my db was born. I'm not going to sit and argue my life is harder as despite a massive mortgage my interest rate is 1.9% when my parents paid 15% and with no fixed rates they had months watching their bills go up each month until they had no idea how they'd afford their next payment. Luck meant df got a pay rise and a bonus that was unexpected.

Every generation has challenges so stop making out the older generation is unreasonable.

Life has difficult bits for most people in all ages. Given the efforts many older people make to help their children I think we all are pretty much in this together.

Im also Generation X Im 44 and two of my classmates killed themselves.

Dreamy
Ithe comment does, however, relate perfectly to the thread title. To wonder why the older generation can’t admit that things are harder for millennials?. The op there is talking in general terms. Not just about mortgages. And goes on to talk about how suicide rates herself and 4 of her friends killing themselves The poster you quoted didn’t say op couldn’t post what they did. Merely illustrated the insensitivity of the thread title. Nasty, sweeping statements aren’t nice and countering them is helping op to get perspective out of (our) own bubble and seeing other points of view.

"What some of you smug twats are missing is social class and the end of social mobility. People who were born to poorer families in the 80s and 90s have almost no chance of making better lives for themselves, because the poor have been systematically pushed out of most well-paying jobs which offer some kind of career progression. Everything worth having, workwise, starts with internships ie unpaid labour. If your parents are already poor, they

need you either to be earning and contributing to the family income,

or at least to be able to support yourself"

YY SGB And if a family lives in social housing and are already on a low income and/or tax credits etc ANY income earned by the young person is taken into account and has to go on the rent thus preventing them from saving so therefore they will need social housing when they get older..........oh wait social housing is being depleted.

I don't understand what is wrong with our generation. I'm 34, I managed to buy a flat in the south east by myself by working 3 jobs and never going on hols/buying lattes when everyone else did. if you work part time and have kids of course you won't have the same earning potential as that! my grandmother is a millionairre now thanks to rising house prices, shares and a massive pension. I don't turn to her and say she is luckier than me. she spent her childhood in air raid shelters and had an abusive alcoholic father who they couldnt escape. she often went hungry. her husband was called up for a war he didnt want to fight and never recovered mentally. she raised children with no heating no washing machine. I would not swap her life for mine or begrudge her life now. be grateful you live in the developed world have access to free healthcare and clean water that comes out of your tap, work hard, sacrifice and practise gratitude instead of pissing and whinging. i was turned down by about 15 lenders before I got my first mortgage and had no central heating for 3 years. dont give up at the first hurdle.

silky
You’re at the oldest end of Millenials and probably have a similar mindset to me. I’m mid 40’s. I think that’s the difference. My mother is just too old to be a baby boomer but is worth a pretty penny and I know someone, who is only just scrapes at the end of baby boomer era and has a very modest home. These are descriptives. Not everyone falls within them as I’m sure you already knows.

My parents bought in the end of the 70s. Interest rates went through the roof and 7 people in their cul de sac lost their homes.
Interest rates knocked the rent payment up.

My Mum was in hospital on life support after the death of my sibling and my Dad has to go to work while leaving me with relatives because they were going under financially. Both had jobs working hard also.

My mother was a single mother before I started school, so I know how terrible she was treated. Even simple things like finding a landlord who rent you a room was very tough. tbh this has been my experience. I'm 27 and last year I must have viewed around 30 houses to rent. No landlords would rent to me because I'm a single mum. They all said they would "prefer families" I know it's easier for single mum's now but we're still looked down on. Some of my friends and family totally cut me off once I was on my own. But then I guess this thread is about buying a house. I'd love to but really my main worries are keeping a roof over our heads and food in my son's belly.

I just wanted to counteract the claims about arts degrees being useless. They are completely not and open up a world of different graduate schemes from the civil service to consulting and from law to marketing. It is completely defeatist to say I did English so I can only do admin. They key isn’t really the degree, it’s doing work experience and extra circular activities while doing the degree.

Absolutely. We have so many local children pushed into science and maths who aren't good at it and then my child did an arts degree and is on six figures as a lawyer. Don't assume the only money is in working in science.

user147 great points. I really think general social skills are very important when it comes to careers. That is the key to my oldest son's success, he had minimal qualifications, but had a CV a mile long by the time he was 16 and was generally very confident around adults and presented himself in a very professional manner. He's got nearly all the jobs he ever applied for and has worked his way up from nothing really.

"i was turned down by about 15 lenders before I got my first mortgage "

I don't think it's a good idea to give mortgages to people who can't afford them. I don't mean your case specifically, but in general people should only borrow what they can pay back. That's what led to the sub-prime crash after all.

" It is completely defeatist to say I did English so I can only do admin. "

It's true for some people though user. Of course there are people who are successful with arts degrees, just as there are some with no degrees at all, but it's not as easy and with so many people now having degrees, a bachelor's degree in an arts subject doesn't generally lead to a career.

"my child did an arts degree and is on six figures as a lawyer. "

The average graduate can't be a lawyer.

extra this is a direct quote from you on another thread (apologies for looking) Little did I know that the reason was that my single mum was paying the mortgage for our house which I now own rather than the other kids who probably got £50 trainers for Christmas
This does suggest that you own a house. Not that you are paying your DGP's mortgage. Or are you renting out your mums house?
You appear to own your mums house and will inherit some equity from your DGPs house where you currently live, and a share of your step dads house eventually in all likelihood. You currently have 100k saved and your DH can borrow 45k but you didn't specify how much you could borrow.

When people appear at best inconsistent, it is difficult to know of any of their words are truthful. However, all in all, you seem to be doing ok though. I'm surprised that your posts are so peevish and angry.

A perhaps slightly different tack is that University was never "free". We paid for it via our taxes. So where 5% of people went to uni in the 70s, we all paid for their experience and opportunity. Now this has shifted so the 40% that go, pay a student loan which works like a tax (77% will not pay it all back before its wiped, and only 18% of the richest pay it all). Government policies have forced Universities onto the open market and have created the league tables with their meaningless boxes to tick.

I know every graduate can’t be a lawyer but I don’t understand why people are saying the average graduate can’t do x or y because of the subject they’ve studied. In the last few years, I’ve taken on graduates with degrees including anthropology, English, PPE, economics, psychology, biomedical science and history. The subject they studied didn’t matter but I was looking for enthusiasm, extra circular activities and a string of A’s at gcse and A-level (which often means top unis too). My field is totally unrelated to the degrees my employees did at undergrad level. Quite often I actually prefer arts grads because of their ability to write and process lots of information. Now, you could argue that not every graduate will have the strong academics at A-level etc that I’m looking for but that isn’t an issue of subject choice, it’s an issue of university choice and general academic performance. I’d rather have an English graduate from oxford than a stem graduate from a bottom tier university.