to reaally not be able to understand why, people say they can't afford to buy or rent a house if they are working?

[iamtrickyjigsaw]

i mean me and dh don't earn much, but we managed it just about.
i just can't understand all these peple on here saying i can't afford rent or a morgage.

I can't afford a mortgage

DH's income = £20k (quite good for here)

A house here costs £180K

I cant work (carer)

ergo no mortgage.

We do rent but rents here are reasonable

Oh Gosh,
when i lived in London i had to answer this questions every day.
Someone would always say:

• so do you rent or own?

-(me) rent.

• But doesn't make sense. Surely you could pay mortgage with the money you pay for rent
• (me) Erm, will you give me the 30K for deposit? AArgh!!!

How difficult is to get this? If you dont earn much and you pay half for rent (i m not even mentioning childcare) how you can save??

And in many cases it is also what 'the computer says..'

Many people on low income have to move house often and they also have short contract with work. So when you go to the lender and he puts your details on the computer he then tells you 'the computer says..'

Also, ironically the only time that i earned descent money i lived on my own and as a single person couldn't get mortgage. And i was told i am not entitled for ownership

Anyway, i dont understand why people moan about public transport. Never crossed your mind to take a taxi? I don't get it. Can someone explain it to me

Of course not, no longer

hoo-feckin-rah OP so just beceause you manage evryone else is a just saying they cant afford

Doh

Many metropolitan cities and popular towns have house prices way beyond many working people obviously London

people need deposit too which after other outgoings eg student debts are considerable undertakings

not too mention low wages

I dont have a car, DD has never been on a holiday, my income monthly is around £900, to rent a two bedroom house its £600 a month, add childcare fees, bills, council tax ect. Go add up.

well being at uni when you have kids is a different ball game, I have to pay out uni costs, normal costs, childcare costs etc so the fact I also work as well as uni and make ok money means shit all.

£170K gets a small 2 bed cottage here. Very little HA or council housing because we are in the Peak Park. Rents £625 pcm. Average wage £1000 for young people ( under 30), council tax £100 pcm, water £40, fuel £70 month, car ( there is very little public transport) £100/ month, child care £400/month/child, .....

Does that tell you why people cannot buy? I cannot understand what is so difficult. People cannot afford to buy. Very simple really.

At the end of the day the equasion is easy. If houses in your area are worth 4 times more than you earn then you can?t afford one.

However, I don?t think it?s quite as black and white as that.

It goes without saying that there are people who are struggling financially, not only to pay the rent/mortgage, but to pay the bills and to live day to day.

But I think it can also be acknowledged that there are people whose interpretation of ?struggling financially? is not being able to afford to buy the things they want, the televisions/dvd?s/games consoles/holidays, and it is often these people who get themselves into immense debt because they feel they should be entitled to have the things they want, when they want. We live in a materialistic society where people don?t have to wait any more if they want something they can buy it on interest free credit or take out another credit card, and although it is scarily easy to borrow money there also needs to be some personal responsibility.

I think it is important to acknowledge that there are people who live like this (I certainly know people who plead poverty while buying the best that credit can buy ) while also acknowledging that there are people who genuinely struggle financially and who cannot afford to rent or pay the bills.

The difference seems to be that people now move in together, have kids, then can't afford to save for a house. That is what has changed since the 80s.

We saved (hard) while living with our parents before we got married in 1983. We had no car, didn't go out or on holiday. We each earned £3k a year, and in the year before we got married we saved between us £2k for the 10% deposit we needed.

The bank lent us 3 x joint income under protest although they didn't feel we could afford to repay it. Yes we were lucky that you need a lot more than 3x joint income now because prices have gone up so much, but it was still a struggle and it didn't just fall in our laps.

There are some new shared ownership part rent/ part buy houses being built here. The website says

Required Joint Income: £26,860.00

Your monthly rent from: £260.68

Minimum savings: £3,250.00

If we could save £2k out of £6k I think someone living with their parents now even on minimum wage could manage £3250 between 2 of them. But obviously somebody already having to pay rent and household bills hasn't got much hope of being able to do so.

I agree with you to some extent Wannabee, just a little at Squeaky who seems to feel that the 80s were a less materialistic era. I think what she means is that she was younger and more idealistic; doesn't mean everybody was in those days, nor that nobody is today. The difference is, we've become middle-aged.

And I also feel that you'd have to save on an awful lot of games consoles and televisions to be able to afford a modern mortgage. The problem is that consumer goods are so cheap compared to the really important things in life- so people feel they may as well have what they can afford rather than wait for an impossible dream.

(I don't seem to know many people who are living it up in the way described by some posters: always suspected we're a dull lot around here)

Are there honestly people who think the Daily Mail is good journalism?

A lot of Daily Mail type views expressed here!

Such a statement is over simplistic. I didn't study economics but I have a lot of friends who work and don't own houses. Find it really hard to get on the property ladder. If you live in the city, rent is extortionate. People on here have kids to support as well.

The only reason we own a house is luck, luck and more luck. Would never gloat or condescend. You don't know what is round the corner.

Required Joint Income: £26,860.00

Thats above the average and the median.
And its more than dh gets.

I know I will have offended DM readers

But it seems such a nasty paper. Always judging and sniping. Blaming sections of society for problems

Prove me wrong

I know I will have offended DM readers

But it seems such a nasty paper. Always judging and sniping. Blaming sections of society for problems

Prove me wrong

dh and I were lucky - he had a small inheritance from his grandad that we used as the deposit on our first flat. Having £12k in our pockets made estate agents treat us with respect back then.

The flat cost £66k, IIRC - one bed, inner London. Last time I checked, similar flats on the same road were £350k. No way an average 21 and 22 year old, even with a £12k deposit, could buy one of them now.

Think that explains why people can't afford to buy.

Christalmighty, the only reason I can afford this house - in a grottyish bit of SE London - is because I had a flat before, which I bought with (a) a partner (b) money from being sacked from a job. And I am even older than SqueakyPop, although I spent the 80s in badly paid lefty jobs myself.

bet you had a better time in the 80s than Squeaky, though, MI .

all that sitting on patio furniture and picking up coppers in the road can't be good for the back or the psyche.

We bought in 98 like a couple of others on here - do you think that was one of the optimum years to buy? No way would we be able to get a mortgage now, it was hard enough to get our 28k mortgage back then, but now we wouldn't stand a chance!

nmc £13430 each is above the average wage? I don't think so! It's not that much above NMW.

I'm astounded that people can't understand how the relative value of property to incomes has changed over the years.

When my DH and I bought our first flat in 1993 (bottom of the market) we bought a nice (but small) two bed flat in a decent area of London for 3 1/2 times our income. He had a reasonably good income but not City or law like, and I earned not very much. I was 26.

To buy the same flat now on the same multiples you'd need a joint salary of £100k. How many couples at 26 and 28 have that kind of money? Graduates will also have huge student loans to pay off before they can start saving for their deposit.

Housing has increased in price far more than income in the past twenty years. Or had .

'How many couples at 26 and 28 have that kind of money? '

What about couples in their 30s and 40s?

That's a lot of money for many people no matter what their age.

well if you will insist on blowing your income on food and heat, really, you have only yourself to blame.

You could have afforded that £200 000 house if only you ate garden furnitute that you scavenged from bins instead.

£700 per month on rent would barely get you a shoebox around here OP! Could you and your family live in a studio? Therefore what people spend on rent here is far more than your mortgage.

My rent and childcare comes in at just over 2k a month and I live in a small 2 bed maisonette! I don't understand why these things need explaining tbh, it's pretty simple.

I think if you lived here OP and had children in childcare you would not be asking the question why... you'd be unable to afford rent/mortgage + council tax + bills + food etc.

I bought in 1995, two-bed house for £34,000. I was single at the time and the price was just twice my starting salary, 99% mortgage.

This is why I get so exasperated when my Dad protests that house prices have merely increased in line with the cost of living!

Then again, he doesn't really understand the compound interest on his equity-release thing and that my sister and will probably not inherit one penny because of it. (Not that I mind - his money - just wish he wouldn't keep telling me I'm insane not to be on the ladder now)

He's actually a very good example of someone who was just bloody lucky to experience a fantastically favourable set of economic circumstances throughout the majority of his earning years.