What position were you in by your 28th birthday?

[RemainsOfTheDay]

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.

Ha! I'm 30 in November. Were renting with 2 kids 7 and 1. Our money goes in and straight back out again practically. Were engaged but need to plan a cheap wedding, which I don't mind as I know how to bargain hunt. I can't imagine how old I'll be when I eventually get a mortgage. Feel as though these things aren't designed for the likes of us.

At 28, I was living in a one bed flat in a nice part of Edinburgh that I'd bought with a 100% mortgage at 3x my salary the previous year. I was so skint, I had no spare cash and had run up £800 on my credit card which was the most debt I'd ever had and it kept me awake at night worrying. Best thing I ever did though.

jasperjohns, i'm not sure that's necessarily true. I'm 33 and my Dad is 63, he told me that when he took his mortgage out it was aimed to finish when he retired, this was whilst he was quizing me as to why our mortgage was only over 25 years and why we hadn't extended it when we moved to lower the monthly repayments, he couldn't understand why we were keen to keep to the original term so it is due to be paid off the year dh turns 50 and me 48.

Dad worked for 30 years in a very well known high street bank and dealt with many many mortgage applications and says the norm in his day was to aim for retirement when taking a mortgage.

In answer to OP by 28 I had had a mortgage for 5 years already, but I was lucky and bought in 2001 as prices were rising but not at stupid level. We bought our first house in 2001 and moved in 2006 in which time the price of the house had very nearly double. If we were rying to buy now I doubt we'd be able to do it. Plus we only needed a 5% deposit, which at the lower price was 'only' a few thousand, I know for certain we wouldn't have the deposit needed nowadays.

Yes it seems a lot do get parental help which we haven't had.

I do fear another mad rise and us getting left behind. But saving is hard enough with a pay freeze for DH and the cost of everything rising.

Reverse cowgirl :o

29 seems awfully young - our local paper had it nearer mid-thirties.

Anyway - bought when I was 24 in 2007; no debt except for mortgage. 29 now, pregnant with first baby, still have got nowhere near finishing the work that needs doing on the house.

I'm 28. We rent out the flat we bought when I was 18, plan to sell it when the children are adults. We have a second mortgage on our family home.

We have a bit of debt, would infact be rolling in it if we hadnt been so stupid with money.

I'm going to be 29 in April - never owned our own home, been renting since we left uni. We were offered a 100% mortgage a few years ago (before it all went tits up) but we weren't ready to commit to the area we were living in (very expensive and for professionals/city workers, and we knew we wanted to start a family). Now not sure if this was a good idea or whether we should have just done it as I don't really know how we'll ever get on the property market.

Although, my dad has offered to lend us a deposit. We do have £10k debt though which is our priority to clear at the moment.

So OP you're doing better than us! :)

We bought our first house when I was 21 with a 5k deposit, 2002 when prices were ok. House was £65k in shitty area but our own home all the same, regret not paying off more of the mortgage at the time but we were in our 20s and wanted nights out, nice cars and holidays.

At 28, in our second house much nicer area, decent equity in it. Glad we did it when we did really as we couldn't raise a deposit or get a mortgage on our current (much less) income.

I was married, 2 children and in the same house we are in now. Although then we were struggling financially with child care, still paying debts from DH's divorce and I was working part time etc. We are in a much better position now.

We bought this house in 1999 when I was 22 and 5 months pregnant with DS1 as we were not living together. An awful wreck of a 3 bed terrace it was to be a temporary house until DP was off EXW's mortgage and we could buy something e really wanted. We paid £27k and had a 100% mortgage. 12 years later we are still here and the house is worth a lot more than we paid although we did remortgage to take some equity out to do the house up.

At 28 I had had a mortgage for 7 years, was married (still am) with a DSS, but plenty of debt (and still do).
Me and DH bought our house (3 Bed Semi) in 2003, with a fab 105% mortgage our loan to value is high, but around the 88% mark now, so we are sitting tight on a low variable rate - plan is to clear loans and cards in the next three years, and then halve our mortgage to 8 years and just get the bloody thing paid off. So I think I help bring the average down a bit

Was married, had 2 children and another one on the way, owned our own house outright thanks to large inheritance .

Had not really begun what you might call a "career". Went back to university to do a PGCE when I was 30, then retrained as a translator at 36. Career really developing since late 30s.