to think I'll never buy a house?

[histoes]

I'm 28, single mum, earn 24k a year which could go up in future but by a maximum of 6-8k. Feeling like time is going to keep ticking by and I'll never be able to afford a house. I had to leave the family home as my ex had enough money to buy me out. We didn't live there that long so only had 8k in the house which has partially been used to pay off debt and a car as mine fell apart.

AIBU to worry that if I rent for the rest of my life that things will be tough for me? Lots of people must be completely priced out of the housing market so not sure why I'm so worried about it. Feel like with a tiny baby I'm going to be on my own on my income alone for the foreseeable future...

Anyone else worry about this?

And there is an outstanding primary 0.5 miles away from that SO property.

Not RTT but have yoinloooed at Sabre’s ownership and auction?

What about the government shared deposit schemes? Take a second job?

Take a second job?

Second job probably quite hard given childcare costs and being a single parent.

Unless the father has the child every Saturday or something and the OP could get retail work or something. Tough that though.

OP you could have a go at Matched Betting. Not quite the gold mine it once was bu you would be able to achieve £6k in 12 months easily (tax free!) if you gave it a little bit of time which can fit around your normal work and looking after your child.

There is always a way to get on the ladder. I scrimped and saved for years and still couldn't afford anything with my partner (we lived in Leamington / Warwick which have really high house prices circa. £170k for a flat at the time).

In the end we decided to move out to one of the cheapest areas in Coventry for a few years, just to get on the ladder. We paid £120k for a two bed house with a garden (We had a £6k deposit but my Mum topped it up for us with a few grand). The area wasn't very nice in terms of crime rate and drug problems, but it could have been worse and we never had any trouble. Within 2.5 years we had two children and were growing out of the house. We didn't think we would be able to afford to move, but we could not believe our luck when we realised what we could now buy.

In the 2.5 years, we had paid off some of our mortgage, so that increased the deposit amount, but in addition to that the house value had increased by £35k. So we ended up selling for £155k. We had only expected to get £130k for it, so I guess it was just lucky timing. So suddenly we had a much bigger deposit to play with, without having saved a penny, we would NEVER have had this sort of money if we had stayed put and continued to save.

We put down £45k on our next house, which we did a help to buy over 35 years, and now we live back in Leamington. I felt very intimidated by the cost of the second house, and the length of the mortgage, but we can afford the monthly payments, so even if it doesn't increase in value for a while, we only have to keep living in a really nice house! I am sure as the years go by our salaries should increase a little and we will increase the payments then. We also had our first year statement through and we had paid £7k off. I laughed to myself that we pay less a month than our rent would have been now, yet have managed to pay off more than we managed to cobble together after saving all those years.

The first few years are the hardest, but no where near as difficult as renting and trying to save. Don't give up, and be prepared to make a few sacrifices at the start. It won't take long before it pays off, especially if you meet someone in the meantime and can pool your finances.

I don't have a bad attitude. I'm not a first time buyer and would need a 10% deposit. Even 5% would likely be £4000 on most places

But again you are being defeatist. You don’t need a 5% deposit there are places that still do 100% mortgages.

Even the one I showed you at 5% would be less than £2500

You have to start at the bottom

We have had several house moves to get where we are.

There was no way that we could have afforded the house we are in when we were in our 20s.

This will cause a lot of trouble, but a single mum is hardly like to buy a house. Other than being widowed, I just struggle to see how so many women manage to get to be single parents with newborns.

This will cause a lot of trouble, but a single mum is hardly like to buy a house

Why?

Start off in a studio or 1 bed flat and work your way up.

A lot of my single mother friends have their own houses.

Obviously like most people in couples or singles they started off small and worked themselves up.

Agreed @Oliversmumsarmy.
Or they started in a postcode which is not really that desirable.

I did that. But because I spent lots of time on research including taking bus trips all over the city and bit beyond, walking through areas which looked good and were affordable. I found few lovely areas with really, REALLY low crime rates within crappy postcodes. Thanks to that I could afford bigger and nicer house than if I went for the good postcodes.

We have less crime than areas where same size house costs 4x as much as mine😁

Buying, especially for the first time is about compromises. You give up something little to gain something else. Depends on your Top priority.
Eg. If it's about the area, you give up recently refurbished property and buy something what will need work you can do slowly over the years so you could be in a certain area.
Or if it's about the space, you move your search half a mile away from desired area to gain a bedroom.

It's not location, location, location. It's compromise, compromise, compromise until you find something what makes you happy even if it's not that amaaaaaaazing dream house.

Op, I have recently set up a help to buy ISA. I just put what I can i it and at least when the time comes there is hard cash off the price of your house. I think the goverment are stopping it soon though so open it soon!

Gth1234
Lots of single parents can buy houses. It depends on their income and area, just like it does for non single parents.

And your comment about manage to be a single parent with a newborn is stupid. Just pull up your judgey pants a little higher.

You are single if your partner dies or leaves, both whilst married and unmarried. And of course some women do choose single parenthood by choice. But you know that.

Anyway....
You save and save and sacrifice like everyone else and you buy when childcare costs go down or kids at school. Also some single parents do have good jobs.

Histoes

What exactly is wrong with the place I posted.

You want to be in Nottingham✔️
You want your own parking space✔️

And at under £50,000 (probably get it for £45000) it is well under the £110,000 you were saying places cost.

You are probably earning around £1650 per month

Probably paying between £4-500 per month rent.
(Property I posted the mortgage could be under £200 per month)

You probably get some help towards childcare. So if we said your child care costs were £600 per month

That still leaves £550 per month over.

Out of that even with running a car. You should be able to put £100-200 per month away.

In a year you will have somewhere between £1200-2400 maybe more if you really live frugally for the year.
Doing Matched betting could bring you in as much as £6000 over the year. Even if you only made £200 per month on it that would be another £2400.

You have the money. It is just about curtailing your expenditure to a bare minimum for a set amount of time and starting at the bottom.

Well you are only 28 so I wouldn't stress just yet.
Also, you can get 5% mortgages, and given your young age you can get a 30 yr mortgage ( which you will earn enough to overpay). I bet if you actually talk to a broker you would be surprised.

Oh it looks like 95% mortgages are available for everyone, not just first time buyers. Nice!

I must say I am not entirely comfortable with 100% mortgages being back on a market, on the other hand banks got much stricter when checking affordability so it might not be as crazy as before recession.

I do recommend shared ownership if you can cobble together enough of a deposit for it. It helped me get on the ladder nine years ago and cashing in on my share has given me my deposit for the next place, you do end up paying your bills and meeting many costs of a home owner but in return you get more certainty and pay a lot less than the open market.

Sorry but I have to disagree. Economically shared ownership is a rip off. It might work in London, or areas where prices are seriously nuts, but a salary of 24k can buy you a whole place in Nottinghamshire. There's no point paying a mortgae AND rent if you don't have to.

Dd and I looked into shared ownership and it was very very expensive (and we are in London)

The op doesn’t have to go down that route as there is plenty of places that op could afford. They are just not up to ops standards.

A lot of people in their 20s and 30s can’t get on the housing ladder. I wouldn’t be on it myself if the older generation hadn’t started dying and passing down inheritance. Do you have any relatives who might help? That’s pretty much how most young people get houses nowadays.

VelvetPineapple

This isn’t about lots of people. Whilst it might be more difficult in some parts of the country than others in ops case we are talking about someone on £28,000 per year and studio flats with parking spaces etc on at £49,000.

Absolutely op can buy if she wants to it is just that she doesn’t choose to.

Yeah i looked into shared ownership and it just seemed to be almost paying as much as rent?

it just seemed to be almost paying as much as rent?

It might be depending on the % owned ratio. But it’s not dead money, like rent is.

What's the obsession about owning a house in the UK?!

If you pay rent, its more than a mortgage for the same property. After 25/30yrs on a mortgage, payment stops. Rent carries on forever, maybe double the time! And when you stop work, the same rent has to come out of your pension. So, its paying way over the odds, really. Thats why i want to own.

MissLady Genuinely, it's so I won't be in poverty when I'm elderly.

I will own my house so won't have rent payments coming out every month.

Is that really so hard to understand?

Have u considered co-ownership

MissLadyM because when you get older the ability to pay rising rents outstrips your ability to earn.