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Original poster

What position were you in by your 28th birthday?

86 replies

RemainsOfTheDay · 14/02/2012 13:20

I have just read an article that says the average first time house buyer is 29.

So in a few months I will have a year to go before I reach 'the average'.

DH and I don't have a mortgage. We are saving but have nowhere near what we need for a deposit.

We don't have any debt though.

Are we really behind?! Or does the average just included all the people that have massive parental help.

OP posts:

inmysparetime · 16/02/2012 20:33

At 28 (2007) I was married with 2DCs, and had been overpaying the mortgage (we bought a £60k house in 2000 with 80% mortgage) so I had £100,000 equity.
I now have a bigger house, with an extension, a £110k mortgage and £150k- £200k equity.
I had no parental help, the 20% deposit came from saved student loans. We have always saved and overpaid the mortgage where possible. We now have 10 years left (currently) on the mortgage, it will be paid off by the time DD turns 18.

MissCoffeeNWine · 16/02/2012 20:45

I'll be 28 later this year. I've had a mortgage for the last 7 years and have about 25% equity, we saved up the deposit for it for 3 years whilst we rented, no parental input. The house is worth about what we paid for it despite putting in a new kitchen and landscaping and so on. No debt and saving up a deposit for another property. I have one DD and am pregnant. I'm also a self employed student with a DP facing redundancy, so who knows what could happen.

headfairy · 16/02/2012 20:51

at 28 (13 years ago now ) I was 2 years in to owning my own place, a flat I'd bought with my sister (I bought her out two years later and then sold the flat in 2009 for £220k more than I bought it for - we used the equity to buy our current house)

I was single, and childless and my career was 13 years younger, but I was probably earning what I'm earning now (have lost out massively due to maternity leave and giving up flexible working - but that's another thread) I didn't have much debt to speak of, maybe a couple of hundred on a credit card, but nothing scary.

Adversecamber · 16/02/2012 20:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Forrestgump · 16/02/2012 22:30

At 29 we had just sold our 3rd house and were in the process of buying this one.

dh started off on the property ladder with a loan off his dad, which he paid back in full. he bought his first house at 22 in 1995 for £42k, and sold it in 1998 for 90k.

house number 2 our first marital home we bought in 1998 for 90k sold it for £195k. it was a complete and total project which we fell in and out of love with. we still drive by it now and smile, then frown.

house number 3 we bought on a wim for £180k, never realy liked it, so barely lived there, we sold it for £280k, and then we bought this house, not our forever house, but it is foremost our home, (the other houses never were) we have no mortage on this house, and no debt.

MyNameIsNotSusan · 16/02/2012 22:34

Until I was 27 I was renting a flat in London and had been saving for several years for a deposit to buy a place. Then I got pregnant ...and moved in to DH's house (he is 12 yrs older and was already on the property ladder). At 28, after our first child was born, DH put my name on the mortgage 50/50 and I used my deposit to pay off a bit of the mortgage.

Of my four closest friends at 28, 3 were renting / living in flatshares (all had good jobs, but London prices are a killer), and one had bought a flat with her boyfriend.

MyNameIsNotSusan · 16/02/2012 22:36

35 now, btw, and we have upsized to a bigger house (more kids, needed more space) and have a £200k mortgage, although about to reduce it by half as DH has had a good year with his business.

No other debt - paid off all our credit cards last year and no longer use them.
In my 20s I hammered credit cards and had about £15k debt which was a bastard to pay off.

LittleBoxes · 16/02/2012 22:36

28? It was 1999 and we were renting in a nice area of London, going out a lot and having fun (we'd met two years previously). We eventually bought a flat aged 32 (in 2004), once we'd managed to save up a deposit, but had to move out of the nice area into a grotty one, because we'd missed the boat with the housing boom. Planned to stay in flat for 2 years, but 8 years later we're still here, because prices fell and our salaries haven't moved much, despite both working full time.

QED · 16/02/2012 22:37

At 28 was married and we had owned a house for two and a bit years. Was going up in value. Just about to have DS and money stuff was going to start going wrong.

Now am 36, separated from XH, rent a house and can't see myself ever owning a house again. Is a bit crap really. Although I am at least dealing with my own money now and (generally) doing OK. Although there is a lot of debt that has to be dealt with first. In a few years that should be sorted out. Would like a long term plan I think.

EndoplasmicReticulum · 16/02/2012 22:41

We bought our first house together aged 22. No parental help, but we both worked, saved a deposit, bought a cheap house in an up-and-coming area and mortgages were easier to get then (1996).

We weren't married then. By 28 we were married, I had trained as a teacher, had moved across the country and bought our second house.

Now on our fourth. Hope that's it for a while, I do not enjoy moving.

Trickle · 16/02/2012 22:43

28 was last year... so living in one room of the house I 'owned' waiting for the new council house to be adapted for my wheelchair wondering wether the house would sell or be reposessed - and wether I could do DRO or go bankrupt as I'd bought in 2005 and house prices have crashed and it's in negative equity. Loan was 100% but I'd banked on having at least one salary coming in and didn't think that was going to be an awful lot to ask - but then I didn't bank on PPI running out, a home that I couldn't live in and DH ending up my carer - hohum (mortgage reapyment is £250 a month so hardly excessive)

BUT I'm still very happy

danceswithyarn · 16/02/2012 22:51

At 28 I had 5 years to go at paying off my student loans and professional studies loan; was a total "credit card slut" jumping from 0% deal to 0% deal with my card; working in a well paid full time (with regular guaranteed overtime) job, single but definitely not out every night, driving an old banger, renting, and skint at the end of every month!

Since then there was a personal loan (now paid off) and a loan from the Bank of Mum&Dad (don't ask!)

Still only just dreaming of starting a deposit fund though!

marshmallowpies · 16/02/2012 23:01

Wow...so many people seem to have owned a property by 28!

At 28 (2004-5 ish) I was living in rented accommodation with BF, he'd sold a property so that we could buy together, the purchase fell through and he got cold feet about the property market.

I had paid off my student loan by then and did have savings of my own for a deposit (around £60k ish by the time I was 30), but BF would not make up his mind about buying together and finished with me just after we'd both turned 30, so clearly he had doubts all along about the settling down business :(

I lived on my own in rented accommodation for a year after the break-up, licked my wounds, and bought my own place when I was 31.

If I'd known I was going to get dumped I would have bought a property by myself as an investment, and sod the BF. Not sure whether that would have left me better or worse off on the property ladder than I am now, but I would have been on it about 2 or 3 years earlier than I was in the end, which I imagine would probably put me in a better position today.

OlympicEater · 16/02/2012 23:03

28 in 1998, we had just bought our first house 3 bed mid terrace for £42k, two okish wages coming in and I was expecting DS.

We had no deposit to buy our house so rather complicatedly borrowed the 5% deposit and cost of fees from my parents and took out a 6% cashback mortgage and used the cashback to pay them back. It did mean that when we sold the house a couple of years later we got stung on redemption penalties, but as house prices had risen we were still £10k up on the deal and used that for the next deposit.

Now we have one wage, 2 DCs and a 3 bed detached with £100k equity.

OlympicEater · 16/02/2012 23:05

Interesting how many people had parental financial help to get them on the housing ladder.

If it hadn't been for my parents encouragement and stumping up the cash then we would have continued renting so we could spend our spare cash on booze and fags which seemed like far more fun to spend on than something as boring as a house

JasperJohns · 16/02/2012 23:06

Newly married with our first house which was a 2 bed cottage. No kids, loads of disposable income. Those were the days!

mamasunshine · 17/02/2012 08:38

I'm 28 now. I'm a SAHM to 3 dc under 4. Dh earns an 'average' wage. We rent a 2 bed house and have a small amount of debt (compared to others) of a couple of grand or so...which we have reduced from about 10 grand. I do worry at times about our lack of monetary assets, if something went wrong or broke it would be very bad.

However, we are very happy with enjoying our lives at the moment and with the dc's all starting school over the next few years it won't be too long before I can start working full-time again (hopefully) and then things will change for the better...surely?!!

Trills · 17/02/2012 08:39

Downwards dog

(that's yoga, not kama sutra)

Trills · 17/02/2012 08:39

Sorry, just being flippant about the title :o

MidnightinMoscow · 17/02/2012 08:50

I was in the process of selling the first flat I bought and buying a house. I was lucky in that I qualified for a key worker scheme in East London when I bought the flat, and made a bit of a profit.

I then made a wise decision to buy a 'do-er up-er' in Newham, and along with the work I did and the olympic's, again I made a profit.

Did it all alone, and am very, very proud of myself.

Now, we (I married at 32) live in a 2 up 2 down, in a nice area but have a massive mortgage. We are in the process of doing this place up, but its much more to make it the home we want rather than to make a profit.

We will have 2 DC's in childcare later this year, which will pretty much wipe out my salary...so long gone are the days of pottering and buying lovely cushions.

Fraktal · 17/02/2012 09:04

Not yet 28 but we won't have bought, will have a 3yo and hopefully another. I would like us to have a deposit so we can buy when DH comes out the Navy but I want to buy a 'permanent' home for us to either live in or be able to rent out if DH gets a job with overseas postings so that may be deferred.

We have some savings, DHs job is safe until I'm 28 and I will hopefully have found a job at our last posting so not terrible if he doesn't have a job to jump to straight away.

Unfortunately for us Paris/surrounds, which is where we would like to settle, is crazier than London. We also can't decide between a smallish but central apartment or a larger more suburban option.

I consider us relatively sorted for mid-twenties in this climate. We aren't panicking about not owning a house at least.

mizu · 17/02/2012 09:13

I thought average age of a 1st time buyer was 38 now.

Which makes me feel better as i am 39 and have never been able to get on the property ladder.

We are saving for a deposit basically but it is taking ages to get a decent amount saved. We both work, I am a teacher but spent my 20s abroad teaching and never even thought about houses and stability.

Punchthosecalories · 17/02/2012 19:05

At 28 I had owned three houses bought when you could get one hundred percent mortgages all of which I had sold at a profit. I was living in an apartment bills paid provided by my work and applying to buy the home I live in now with my little family. I suspect I'll be here till I'm elderly which has good and bad points :D

ChasingSquirrels · 17/02/2012 19:13

28, that would be 2000/01.
Had just returned to the UK after working abroad for two & half years.
Paid off mortgage on house we brought in late 1994, mostly with money saved while aboard as nothing to spend it on in a third world country, but also because the house only cost just over £40k in the first place.
Was planning on starting a family and being a SAHM and was temping for a while, but quickly realised that DH's commute was untenable and we had to move to where he was working - which meant a big increase in housing costs, which meant I had to work.
Got a job, found a new house, got a much larger mortgage and started another phase of my life.

JasperJohns · 17/02/2012 21:00

Is the average age of a 1st time buyer really 38?

If they were eligible for a 25 year mortgage they would be 63 by the time it was paid off. A bit depressing when you consider our parents generation had paid their mortgages off probably 10-15 years earlier.

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