Are things harder for millennials?

[squidwid]

Many of my friends don't own houses and they're in their 30s. They did everything that society asked of them and still they're not making headway.

I know so many elderly people that live in 4 bedroom homes worth £400k plus. Obviously there is nothing wrong with that but families should be able to afford those houses so things can move on. No one can afford to buy them...

Would it be churlish to point out that it was very easy to work anywhere in Europe until Boomers voted for Brexit? (Maybe not you, but it's another way younger generations have been shafted)

But when I was young a starter house would be one you bought in your 20s not your late 30s/40s

There are more and more people in the world and we can't all be wealthy or even well off. Society told us to become obedient workers, not own homes.

I don't own a home but I could have if I had prioritised it. I don't feel hard done by. I wanted a social home and I got it.

I have uncapped earning potential but again don't prioritise earning loads, although I may do over the coming years.

I firmly believe we can all achieve exactly what we want. Especially in the age of the internet, there is information on everything readily available. And there is earning potential via the internet if you want to go for it.

I grew up poor but I only blame myself for not being wealthy, I never attempted to be.

People don’t want flats. They want private outdoor space and fresh air. They want to have a bbq and a garden for the grandkids to play in. Flats don’t sell because people simply don’t want them, for lifestyle reasons. That’s why bungalows are so popular - the same space as a flat but you have a garden.

I just did a search for property within 5 miles of "London" for 200k (3 times a city starting salary plus a substantial family deposit). Apart from auction properties, properties with barely mortgageable leases (so depreciating), house boats, mobile homes and tiny building plots there were a couple of flats in Hornchurch and nothing else.

Where are the cheap flats to get on the ladder if you've been pulled to London for your career. My parents bought a 3 bed in Pinner something like this https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/128036396#/?channel=RES_BUY
on 2 junior but qualified accountant salaries then moved out to Milton Keynes to buy a 4 bed detached within walking distance of the station a few years later.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/132690788?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

Like this but bigger plot and closer to station...

Yet it's ok for millennials with children to have to buy flats?

It’s hardest for those without generational wealth

This

We are both early 30’s, we earn around 42k between us, we had kids very young so never had an opportunity to save when they were little but even now with a deposit we can not get a mortgage for a 3 bed house as we don’t have the wanting power and moving to a ”cheaper” location isn’t an option.

Another part of the problem is that because property values are bonkers in this country and the market is fairly stable, it's a good place for foreigners to invest. In the 90s and 00s for example Russians who made a mint in the post-Communist world were parking their millions in London property. Same goes for oil billionaires etc.

Which filters through the market - it boots the next rung of people out a bit further in London, which boots the next rung out and out until you get inflated prices in commuter towns, so people there get booted out etc and prices rise everywhere. Because we're being used as a piggy bank for crooks, basically.

I think YABU. Maybe people need to adjust their expectations a bit, I had to buy 100 miles from my family home, and buy a small 2 bed rather than a 4 bed 400k+ house, and I used the help to buy scheme where you only needed 5% deposit.

The idea of a property ladder doesn't really exist for most either these days.

But when I was young a starter house would be one you bought in your 20s not your late 30s/40s

Exactly!

Good point!! I'm raising my family in a flat. While my folks roam about in a massive house

Nobody wants flats. Everyone wants outdoor space of some sort. If you have kids or grandkids you need a garden. Even young people with no kids still want outdoor space just to enjoy it and have a bbq. The only people who buy flats are people who have no other choice because of price or location. Flats are horrible and your life is miserable if you live in one, I don’t know why developers keep building them.

So she represents a whole generation does she? Sounds like she’s just a spoilt brat to me, which is probs more to do with how she was raised. LOL.

The number one issue is that houses became seen as an investment.
Successive Tory governments have made homeowner a priority (largely because they know homeowners are more likely to vote Blue). Thatcher decide to destroy the social housing sector. New Labour ensured it continued.
I worked in housing for decades and the devastation it has caused is awful.
Rents are so high. The same house I first rented in my current city has gone from £110 a month to £1020 a month (as of a couple of months ago). Average wages were £18k in 2000 when I rented. They have not gone up to £180k (10 times as much in line with rent) but gone up to £33k not even double.
With rents this high people will be stuck.

You’re not on fixed incomes. You can get promoted or get a better job.

Wages have stagnated for 15 years, how does everyone get better pay?

Exactly this

I agree with you OP. I'm a millennial and both my partner and I wouldn't of bought a house without our parents who helped us. We managed to save £30k in 5 years and that was no where near enough to get us on the property ladder, unless we went into help to buy, not to slate it but I know eventually you are worse off.
We wanted a house we can own in the future so both our parents chipped in to help us. Our parents aren't wealthy nor do they have a heap of savings but considering when they were buying houses, they £18k to buy and a 2 bed semi detached cost us nearly £380,000 during lockdown. Shocking to say the least and that was cheap!
It's disgusting but not sure how many of our friends will ever get onto the property ladder without inheritance or help of family. It merely impossible.

We bought our first house at 35, after a decade of saving, and we still needed a loan from both sets of parents. We have a 30 year mortgage so if we’re lucky and don’t have health issues we’ll just about pay it off by retirement age. There will be no “moving up the ladder”. It’ll take us all our time to pay off our first house, never mind move up to a better one.

I see all these comments about starter homes. Three bed houses are starter homes when you've waited until you're in your mid 30's with two children because the bank decides you need 10x your earnings to buy a house you were renting at a higher monthly payment than the mortgage, for the last 2 years. You can't buy further out without being unable to work because you cannot be an hour away from your children's school, and the wrap around care is too expensive. The cheapest two bed in my city, is 8x a single persons salary (average), difficult to buy that house when your fighting to survive every month, let alone save for a deposit. Impossible for a single parent. And renting... it's £1300 a month for a three bed house in a "rubbish area" where I am. £1000 for a two bed. I am not in a wealthy area (although I am south West Midlands)

When you come from a time where you could buy a house, any home at all really, on one persons salary, at a cost of 3x your annual income, you've really got no business arguing that those who can't afford the same house, with two salarys at 8x joint annual income, don't have greater challenges than they did.

I guess you could argue that you shouldn't expect to be able to have children until you've bought a house and are financially secure. When the ages of first home ownership rising, it will become harder biologically to have children. Try living in a house without a fridge or beds for your kids now and see what social services make of that. I'm not sure they'll care much that you scrapped by to buy the dingiest property your could, just so you could buy, to move your kids into a house with no furniture, fridges or heating. Of course, that's on the assumption you can find a social worker...

Plus I'm a bit concerned about who is going to pay for the pensioners to receive their state pensions that their hard work and contributions won't even touch the sides of in terms of the costs (inflation, aging population needing more care etc) without young workers paying their taxes. It could then even go as far as to rule out anyone without any generational wealth from parenthood. But let's not have immigrants come here with their children and education and tax paying potential, that would be "ruining" our country.

There's plenty of over 50's developments, schemes for cheaper houses that boomers could retire into. They don't want those properties though... they want bungalows, if they are going to downsize at all. Completely missing the irony in deciding those properties aren't to their taste, whilst telling the rest of us that we should be grateful for whatever home we can get.

I'm sure that it was hard for older generations. Even harder at times, but generally speaking, you've come out of the harder times in a better position than I can hope to. I don't even want to imagine how much harder it is on the generations below me, it's untenable.

I think the biggest issue (not just around this) is when one generation says a sweeping statement then another generation comes along and says but we had it way worse than you. I hate the race to the bottom mentality.

If I was a boomer the better response to this thread would be “yeah it must be super hard to buy a house buy a house now days the data shows the average wage hasn’t kept up with the average house price”
“we also had our struggles as boomers around x,y,z, I wonder what the next generation will have to struggle with”

I don't know if this is true, it's how we build flats and the attitude towards them that's the problem. In much of Europe, flats are seen as perfectly fine for families, especially in big cities.

The difference is that the flats are solid so noise isn't a problem, on a suitable scale that you don't feel cramped up, don't carry social stigma, and there are enough playparks and green space nearby that you don't feel deprived of outdoor space. When they're built right, flat blocks can create community and the kids play in a central courtyard etc.

The problem is that here, flats are often built from shoddy materials so they're noisy, have bad insulation, and developers are greedy so they end up having mean little rooms, low ceilings, no playparks etc.

Yes interesting - but back in the day everyone didn’t speak English in the EU so unless you spoke the required language of the country you wouldn’t get a job there.

but I don’t dispute the house prices and that shortage of them have skewed things against young people - and it’s worldwide now. Not good.

DD, complaining about her rent, credit card,TV,, playstation etc in every room. Takeaways, latest fancy phones. Completely different lifestyle to us boomers. My late DM worked. First married,a couple of cold rented rooms,then bought a caravan, not a fancy heated park home. Sold used money for deposit first house,ex H,had 2 jobs,as the mortgage rate rose,I often had 4. Nursing home, hospital,agency,and a cleaning job. We always bought doer uppers. 15 years ago,was ice on the windows, tiny 1930s cottage,kids always shared bedrooms. 2nd DH, in the 60s, he shared a double bed with his late DF, brother,sister and GM, shared the other double bed. I've had negative equity, repossession. Fought back at 50, we bought, 4 jobs again,at some points,I worked a night shift,came home, changed clothes,worked a day shift. Didn't go to bed after a night shift till my youngest was at school. Soon as the kids left home, downsized 2 bed bungalow, unmodernised,took 10 years. No holiday for 15. Yup,had it real easy!!!!
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