To think most property owners don’t understand how hard it now is to buy a house

[Boredfromboredshire]

DP and me earn 40k between us and our rent is 1200 a month for a 3 bed house. We don’t have rich relatives, we are in our early 40’s and circumstances (ill health) meant that we didn’t buy a house before. We can’t save a deposit & houses are expensive by us. We have stable jobs & our kids are happy so moving in the current uncertain time’s isn’t an option. Life has happened to us & some of it has been out it control.

Cue well meaning friend (who bought their house for peanuts) asking me why we couldn’t afford a house when we could get a house in a cheaper area for ‘only’ 400k. I’m so fed up of it. We really want a home of our own & we would move but in the current recession, it’s not a good idea to give up a job. And we can’t afford to save. My friend (whose deposit was 12k can’t understand it and looks on pityingly while telling me the house they bought for 120k is now worth 700k.

For many of us, the housing market is closed for ever. I’m so tired of the pity and the complete cluelessness- I quite often feel utter despair about it. It makes me feel such a failure for no real fault of our own. Some people were lucky because they happened to buy at a particular month in time & then some of us couldn’t & it’s over.

I don’t think people who own really understand what it’s like. Low interest rates, cheap mortgages, everything weighted in favour of owners while renters are treated like the Victorian poor.

Aibu to be sick of it. We are a normal family in normal jobs.

I dont understand this logic. I can't afford a 300k house so I can't afford a house. I cant afford a Lamborghini but i can afford a car! Our 12yo seat Alhambra gets us about just fine. You need to buy within your budget (which may influence size and location) and if you don't want to make those decisions, then fair enough rent what/where you want if that's more important - we all have different priorities, that's ok. I most certainly could never come close to owning a 300k house (I'm a mental health nurse, DH a lorry driver), and certainly not as our first home - the house we're working towards long term isnt even half that! It's all well and good saying it's hard getting onto the property ladder - it is, trust me I know, and with the way things are we are likely to be booted off it - but I think sometimes people need to be a bit more realistic. Obviously itll be hard saving up 30k, so start smaller, and work your way up. Rome wasn't built in a day, and a lot of homeowners started at the bottom and worked their way up.

New builds come in all shapes and sizes from studio flats to big 5/6 bed detached and are priced accordingly. Also depends on where you are in the country. Not everyone using help to buy will be buying a 300k house.

In fact, most people outside London, the south east and a few hot spots are unlikely to be spending that on a first home.

I have a house and I made sacrifices, I bought near my work (so didn't need a car), I worked overtime, I didn't go out, I didn't go on holiday, I stayed living with my parents until I could afford it.

And then once I had it I continued to do the same

And it was a flat

I get that, I was referring to previous poster saying how low earners wouldn't be able to save 30k for a deposit for a 300k house - well no, they probably cant, that makes sense. Its crap we cant all afford the lifestyles we would like but that's life and we have to adjust. I couldn't afford a new build full stop so bought a fixer upper, such is life.

Who buys a 3 bed house straight off?

Mine was also a fixer upper

Saying you can't afford a house just because you cant afford a 300k one straight off the bat is ridiculous.

And second hand furniture

And then I went to local tech to upskill as flat was rubbish and couldn't afford anything more without warning more money. If you want it you will find a way, if not you won't. Make a plan.

CV now makes it a rubbish time to do much, but you can research and make a plan how to achieve it. Without a plan admittedly you won't, you will drift along moaning about it. I do feel for you, it is harder now, but not impossible.

OP, you should take heart (and consider yourself lucky). With the absolute mother of all recessions, a depression unprecedented in history, total economic carnage both here and globally, prices will drop in the next 18-24 months by 40% minimum. Minimum.

A very large number of people (including some on here) who bought houses in the last 5 years may be forced to sell or lose them, sad but that is reality.

Just bide your time while prices plummet and supply rockets.

Very true thebounder!

I’m not smug. I’ve been a homeowner but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand it’s difficult. In fact that means I understand how bloody difficult it is, surely.

I started saving for a house at 17, because I didn’t have any family support, so I had nowhere to live. I didn’t go to university. I was earning £3.60-£5.05 per hour (minimum wage was lower because of my age, because apparently people under 25 don’t have to support themselves) in three jobs, paying rent and saving for my deposit. For context, in my first year in my rented house had to work over 100 hours per calendar month to pay the rent alone. That’s before savings, bills, anything else at all. I worked my ass off to save that deposit and the house prices rocketed whilst I was doing it. But I did it anyway. I’m bloody glad I did but I know that other people made other choices (eg going to university) that they felt were better for them, or didn’t have the choices I did. It makes me more sympathetic, not less.

DH and I have just got a deposit together. Mortgage advisor had a look and the maximum mortgage we can get is almost £200 CHEAPER than our current rent. We asked by paying the £200 extra a month over the mortgage term how much we could (in theory borrow) and we could get what we need, yet we failed on AFFORDABILITY!! Go figure. Grinds my gears no end. We have saved every last penny we've had over the past 10 years and then we get the door slammed in our faces. Infuriating. 🤬

I totally agree. I am a single parent, live in rented with my 4 teenagers. I have a deposit, but there is nothing I can afford on a nurses wage. I just feel like this it now, makes me very sad

We’re deep into RTFT* territory now, as people have piled in with their patronising ‘advice’ (in tongs because that's how you handle bullshit), sage insight which naturally accrues from having bought, and talking points from “Climb the Ladder to Your Forever Home!” central office. At least this topic is in the arena of AIBU, rather than buried in the house price inflation cheerleading property board.

In this corner we have SuckItUp, practitioner of patronising sageness extraordinaire. In the other corner, shoulders bowed with weariness by the constant onslaught of bollocks, we have FuckThisShit, forehead being mopped by the coach from Rocky, template for all boxing coaches. Who will win this debate barrage of anecdotes vs dispatches from the front lines of cold hard new reality, only time will tell.

Is that desperation we see in the eyes of SuckItUp, bouncy with bravado yet aware that her fortune or those of many in her team are in jeopardy without a constant infusion of fresh blood into the game? Is that a flash of righteous anger in the eyes of FuckThisShit, shod in shabby trainers yet much lighter on her feet thanks to the invigorating affects of that nutritious avocado smoothie the coach made her drink before the match?

Spectators are starting to leave, as if suddenly realising they’re breaking social distancing rules and keen to get home, whether rented, paid for, or still mostly owned by the bank.

*Read The Fucking Thread, for those new to this venue. So few people do, or it might be much shorter due to the shame of constant repetition, one sign of cognitive decline (in keeping with the boxing theme).

Whatodo, what are the percentages of annual salary you can borrow? When we first bought it was 2.5 joint salaries (we were both working full time before children) or 3x one person's salary but it has certainly changed over time particularly now interest rates are so much lower than they used to be.

@Xenia we got a mortgage on affordability 17 years ago - 4 x joint salary despite having 1 Dc and 1 on the way... had a 15% deposit.

It was still cheaper than renting the equivalent...

The problem with saying "if you can't afford to buy, you can't afford to buy, cut your cloth etc etc" are completely ignoring the ticking timebomb this creates.

By the time I get to retirement (another 30 or 40 years or so), I suspect the state pension will be much reduced, if not removed entirely.

If my generation and those following us cannot get onto the housing ladder then you will, quite quickly, have a huge increase in pensioners who dont own a house and can't afford to rent (if rents keep creeping up like they have done over the last few years).

And what happens then?

It's going to be a huge, huge problem in the next 30 years.

Either there needs to be a huge swing in house prices, or sweeping rent controls need to be introduced.

@Xenia

I believe its gone up to 4.5x. I could be wrong though. Problem we have at the moment is DH's wages. For the past 10 years he has earned on average an extra £6k in overtime per annum, but because of CV his overtime is 0. They will take into consideration his overtime, but last 4 months he's had nothing... And currently we don't know when it's going to pick up, so the figures are worked out purely on our basics. We don't know what the future holds... But at the moment it's a case of "so close, yet do far"

@ScrewBalls99

B&Q used to run DIY courses. When I went you got the cost of the course taken off any products you bought. They were all evening classes.

In January I was offered 5 times my salary as a single buyer or 4 times DP and mine joint salary. We aren’t planning on borrowing that much though.