Home purchase is so much harder for young people than it was 20 years ago

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
a reply to: Vasa Croe

Same here regarding easy profit from renovations, a few mates do that as their business.
I'm wondering more about the wages/house price inflation comparison though, have house prices in Atlanta increased faster than wages as has happened in the UK?

Depends on the area but yes they have for the most part.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

No kidding, it just sold recently for 350,000! Thing is, it was a 700 sq. ft. terraced property with a smallish, but nice back garden. My florida place was 2500 sq. ft. with a 2 1/2 car garage on 1/2 an acre with a massive pool!!!!!
I try not to think about it too much, cuz there's nothing I can do about it.

I just talked to an estate agent friend, and he said the same thing, peeps are dumping savings into property because they are lucky to get 1/2% interest. It's not really greedy, you gotta do somethiing for retirement cuz from what I have seen, pensions dont pay much in the UK! My Air Force retirement exceeds the average UK EARNINGS. (Thats not a brag BTW, just saying.)

Homes Under the Hammer is the reason!!!!!!

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Every area has increased in value where I am, even poor run down estates are becoming unaffordable for 'normal' people to buy.
Land is at a premium here, especially with planning permission to build. I have another friend who buys small 'house sized' plots without planning permission, then spends a couple of grand taking the risk applying for permission to build then once granted sells it on to a developer at huge profit. It is a risk because if permission is refused then he's stuck with land nobody really wants, but still all the while increasing in value.
Example last year he bought a small plot of scrubland for £100,000 then applied for permission to build. Permission was granted and he sold the same plot for £210,000 to a builder.

Again though, all my mates are from my generation when property was reasonably priced compared to wages, the golden years if you like. All I see for our childrens generation is paying other peoples mortgages through rent.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

So much this.

My wife is disabled and we have a child, so I'm the only earner in the house. Just to try and have something that was mine, I bought a boat and we were living on that happily for about 3 years, but it wasn't suitable for a pregnant woman or raising a child in our situation, so we are back to renting.

I have a reasonably good job, earning a bit more than your son, but home ownership for us is nowt more than a pipe dream at the moment.

My rent is £900 a month, but the mortgage lenders tell me I can't afford £400 a month in mortgage repayments.

Our deposit was £2,000. To be fair we got very lucky with our house as it's beautiful and in a good area and we really have no complaints, but the housing market in the UK is now solely for investment purchases and it can only go on for so long before we have an entire generation of renters throwing their money down the drain essentially.

All of the schemes that "help" you get on to the property ladder are just that, schemes. You end up with no more real ownership than if you were renting. You don't save much money with a 20% mortgage 80% rent. Then depending on your scheme, any equity gains you get, go back to the lender, so what's the effing point??

They stipulate on whether you can keep pets or decorate, so how is that ownership? It's basically pointless to buy a house right now unless you can afford to do it outright, but even then, the way the world economy is and the fact that house prices or so tremendously inflated, even buying a house outright is a risk.

Our generation has been sold out.

a reply to: lakenheath24

You are correct about UK state pensions being pretty low, my mother gets around £200 per week so she's just lucky she has no mortgage to pay.
Off topic, but I've always wondered about your username and I think you've confirmed my thoughts that you were stationed there? Bet it was nice to get to FL away from our miserable weather!

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
a reply to: intrptr

So it's a similar inflation hardship experience where you are as well then. I feel so sorry for the next generation.

The goal is always to make as most of the population into indentured servants, debt slaves as much as possible.

This is the way it always goes. The culprit is bankers, they get control of nations economy by issuing currency, making loans and getting everyone in debt to them.

The only thing left is debtors prisons and working for free to pay off loans.

"Sold my soul to the company store." -- Tennessee Ernie Ford.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Yes the return from savings has been poor for a long while, even before the 2008 crash. Even now with the crazy low base interest rate people are still stretching there finances to the limit so they can invest in more property.

Ideally for me and many in my situation we would self build our own eco homes..
but trying to get planing permission is like trying to draw blood from a stone. Yet big standard building developers have no problem even when the supporting infrastructure is already at full capacity.

On top of that some people think I’m racist because I think any more immigration is a bad idea. This nations lost the plot if you ask me.

a reply to: Dem0nc1eaner

Wow man, your story is exactly the scenario I'm talking about. It's so much harder due to inflation of house prices compared to wages than 20 years ago.
...and the disgrace that you can prove you can afford £900 a month on rent yet a bank won't touch you for a £400 a month mortgage.

I'm as worried as you that we will have a generation of mostly renters paying the mortgages of buy-to-let landlords, with little or no hope of buying themselves like I did easily as a young man.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

My wife and I sold our first home in Texas for a decent profit back in 2016 and moved to middle Tennessee. I work in contract law and do make a pretty good salary that can support us and our daughter. We have been renting for a year and a half but may continue to rent for at least another 6 months or another year.

Around here the past 3 years saw prices jumping and corporate rental company's buying starter homes with cash to rent out. We are looking at step up homes (3000sqft with .5 - 1.5 acres) and they have been staying on the market for weeks and weeks and showing numerous price drops. We are happy to invest and save until a good time to enter the market because liquidity in this day and age is important on just one salary. Home repairs are something a lot of folks don't plan into their budget when they compare renting to buying.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

I was a weapons guy on the F-15E from 96-04. When I first found this site, I was at the 24 end of the runway. LOL Kinda dumb, but its difficult to come up with a name sometimes!

a reply to: surfer_soul

The planning system is corrupt as # in my local authority, I'm convinced money changes hands on the sly somewhere along the line. Friend of mine renovates properties and the council insist on expensive replica double glazed wooden sash windows for example, yet a big corporation building on the same street get away with cheap 'open out' upvc windows.
Minor example but I'm sure you know what I mean.

I guess it's just the job or jobs you do. I worked two jobs and bought a trailer for 90,000$CDN mortgaged of course still needed 15,000$ down when I was 18. Then I started working three and got into my 265,000$CDN place on a very nice street at age 25. Its mortgaged but I needed a 45,000$ cash down payment. Saved and saved and maxed my line of credit too but I wanted it so I worked to get it. Back too just two jobs now, my wife has been with me through all of this too working two jobs and being the other 50% I needed. She also worked 2-3 jobs at times and still works 2. I help support her as she got her teaching degree too. She worked two jobs in school so she wouldn't have student loans.

For a single person I agree it's all but impossible to achieve.

My bills not including what my wife pays are 3200$CDN a month.
People around town always ask why we work so much do they think it's free to live well?

In closing I agree with the OP, it took two young people and 5 jobs in order to carve out a life.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Was 50 grand AUD to buy a decent home when I was in high school.

Try buying anything for under 500 grand now. unless you want to live in the outback.

The thing that confounds me, is that your credit rating goes down if you dont have enuff credit, or don't use credit enuff. It is mad. My old man is a millionaire, and was in Lowes one day. He got refused a c/c because he hadn't used any credit in 15 years. Never mind all his assets and 50+ years of paying mortgages and loans and such with never a missed payment. It truly is a scam.

a reply to: SonOfThor

Sounds like you are being sensible holding out for the right price.
On a side note I have a lovely friend in TN and when I've checked out the amount of land you can buy for your buck there I can only sob in jealousy!

a reply to: Athetos

I get ya, but in the UK scenario I referenced initially, property prices have exploded compared to wages in the 20 years since I was a young man.
Respect to you working so hard to achieve your dreams, but one question, would it have been easier for you 20 years ago than now doing the same job/s?

a reply to: badw0lf

Wow!
It seems your property price inflation is even more nuts than here in England!

originally posted by: lakenheath24
The thing that confounds me, is that your credit rating goes down if you dont have enuff credit, or don't use credit enuff. It is mad. My old man is a millionaire, and was in Lowes one day. He got refused a c/c because he hadn't used any credit in 15 years. Never mind all his assets and 50+ years of paying mortgages and loans and such with never a missed payment. It truly is a scam.

Millionaire who can't get a credit card! You couldn't make it up!
...cool story about your username though, made me chuckle

Bought my first house in 1982 . Small new brick flat level and 1 3/4 acre of great lawn for $23,000 on a 15 year loan.
The main reason that it was cheap ? It was 10 minutes from a small city.
Now , everyone has the expectations of a home near malls and coffee shops. A flat in the small city I live near ? $1200 or more a month. Lease.
Folks want what the others have whether they can afford it or not. They have to go with the herd mentality.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Houses are like 500 to 800 where I be.

200k is in the ghetto

in the ghettoooo