If you had children young have you managed to buy a house?

[Sandiepatterson]

I had children fairly young (well age 22) and was then single for 10 years. I missed getting on the property ladder as a result.

I am unlikely to ever catch up with my age group (early 40s).

I'm wondering if any of you managed to buy a house whilst either being single or having children young. How did you do it? If you didn't are you struggling now?

BTW I don't regret a thing of course, that goes without saying.

I had to start again at 36.

I rented from the council then did right to buy after three years. I would never have got on the property ladder again otherwise.

Had DD at 20, got the keys to our house 2 months before she was born. In many respects the pregnancy helped us get on the ladder as without it I can’t imagine I would have bought a house at that age. Thankfully we live in a reasonably cheap area and we were able to get a 2 bed house for under 60k (back in the early 00’s). Deposit was scraped together from a variety of sources but Again it wasn’t a huge amount. We still own that house and rent it out.

I had DS in 2002 when I was 17 with my 19 year old boyfriend who worked in min wage retail. I went to uni at 19 and once I qualified and got my first job, I managed to get on the property ladder age 23. My dad funded the 3 % deposit, and I paid all the other fees and associated costs. It was a bit of a gamble, as the house was a 3 bed semi, and at the top of my budget. But it has paid off. I bought in 2008 at the top of the housing market. But I got the house as a long term investment rather than to sell on within a few years after outgrowing it. I had a tracker mortgage, so my repayments were peanuts for years. Still are really. It was in negative equity for a long time (10 years). But it was never really a big issue. Now it is 20k in equity.
I didn't buy with my boyfriend even though we had been together for 8 years at that point. The deposit came from my family, and he had poor credit. If I had a joint mortgage, we would have gotten worse rates. So I did it by myself. Luckily really as we split up 8 months after buying the house. Which did make life easier in that respect....

I’m 40, had my first at 21 and have never managed to get on the property ladder and I know I never will now. I worked part time for most 15ish years so my husbands average salary with my low salary has meant we’ve always struggled. We can now afford to rent a better property but would never be able to save enough for a deposit in this area. It does make me sad.

I was 17 when I had my first DC - 19 when we bought a flat and 22 when we bought this house...

But, I live somewhere with pretty reasonable house prices compared to a lot of places - which is really what makes a huge difference.

DH and I didn't manage to buy our 1st house till we were in our 40s. And that was with a 40% mortgage. We had to borrow 30k for his patents on top of our savings. So hard these days. We have 5 children too. 3 have moved out and 2 toddlers..

I bought my house at 21 first child at 24 then dh left I bought a house on my own with half the equity and lots of frugal living.

We had our children early 20s too and bought our council house (I know, I know - I’m MN definition of the devil!)

It’s unlikely we would have got on the property ladder another way.

I've no children but managed to buy my first home at 30 after 16 years of renting and no parental help. It was tough but I am good with money and I got a help to buy Isa a few years ago. I stuck to my strict budget and saved the full £200 each month until I had a 10% deposit.

*14 years of renting. Got my first flat with my sister at 16.

No, but that’s mainly due to the area we live in rather than any other factor. When we need less support with the children then we will be able to relocate to somewhere that’s actually affordable!

I had DD1 at 19 and was pregnant with DC2 when we bought our house aged 21. We were only able to do that because DH deployed and had a large bonus for our deposit. It's not the norm.

I had DS when I was 19 and I'm 28 now and I'm only just thinking about buying a house, it's just not been feasible until now. Even so I have debts to pay off first and then will be starting saving from scratch so can't see it being possible until I'm 35ish.

I think it depends on when you bought as well. I bought my first house at 21, but this was in 1996 when property was really cheap. Had my first child at 22, second one at 23, then became a single parent for 15 years at 26.

My house cost £42k in 1996, sold it for £155k in 2007. Same house was recently up for sale for £250k!

I honestly don't know how younger people get on the housing ladder these days, my kids are 21 and 22 and I don't see them getting houses for a long time, if at all.

Had ds at 22 (10 years ago). Been a single parent for pretty much all of that time. Stupidly became a teaching assistant so earn peanuts. Trying to find something to retrain in to boost my earning potential but no matter what I end up doing, I doubt I will ever be able to buy as a single person in the SE. It's depressing!

I bought a house at 19 and had my first baby at 21. I hadn’t even met my husband when I started buying my first house. We upsized together shortly after the first baby arrived.

DH and I are renting privately and now nearly 10 weeks pregnant with DC1. Pretty sure that, short of a lottery win, we won't own our own house...mainly because DH has been unemployed for over a year now and thanks to COVID probably even longer. Have looked at help to buy though so might be an option one day but saving for the deposit is the trickiest thing especially on a single income.

I was 21 when I had my first son husband 23. I'd just turned 25 when we had our second. Married and bought a house at 26. Nearly 31 now and have 9 years left on our mortgage as we have massively overpaid due to mortgage being significantly cheaper than rent. We love in SE and it was a struggle.
The worst part was saving and renting with little ones in nursery. Didn't have family help. We had no holidays, worked so hard and it went by in a blur.
Things are a lot easier now.