davegtt

jj, depends on when they bought their house and what sort of morgage they have on it. granted if u bought it say 3-5 years ago youve made a killing if u do decide to sell up or down size etc but what would the point in downsizing (and remember the smaller house has gone up in price too) when youve gone to all that trouble of getting a bigger house, surely its better to stick with the bigger 1 at least if its just to have something to show for their money?

Jye

Yes jjones, but why would they, mostly they have kids, so need the room, and tbo they all have this 'big house' ego that means it wont happen very soon if at all

It's deffo a choice thing but being saddled with huge dept in this day and age is not for everyone, job stability must play a big part in any decision. One of my m8's is on long term sick atm and he's **** scared he's going to lose his house, even with payment protection it wont help him forever.

Just ask yourself how many homes are repossesed every year in the UK.

it's a camera btw

davegtt

As opposed to how many arnt?

want to enlighten us?

Jye

Well in the early 1990s when mortgage rates hit 15 per cent hundreds of thousands of families had their homes repossessed. I'm not saying thats ever going to happen again but who knows the way the economy is shifting.

But thats not the point I'm making Dave, even if it's only a few thousand people it's a crushing blow to deal with and one that should be considered with rising interest rates set for the future and people on 'average' wages looking into £250K + mortgages.

davegtt

I know your point but you cant say look at how many homes are repossesed OK it might be thousands but when theres millions of homes the risk is small if your sensible with money....

Sub97

Good point, but we couldnt actually afford to pay ours off, needed the extra bit on the mortgage to afford the house. They wouldn't lend us the extra as we had loans - i.e. telling them we would pay off a 6k car loan added about another 20k to the mortgage.

Cheers

Steve

Jye

Yes I guess I was being a wee bit OTT with that particular comment, but many people 'are' taking huge risks with property and 'are' overstretching their finances, always have done always will. I guess I just feel that you never know whats round the corner and liked to be prepared for either job loss or health problems. My job was never nor will ever be entirely safe (are any?) but even if I or my partner lost our job or became ill our mortgage was always safe. Perhaps never having had to worry about bills, debt or a large mortgages is what makes me content with what I do have

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

I dont know the answer to the original problem.
its a fairly subjective thing and half will say go and half will say stay put, its really down to individual preference.
but our situation suits me fine.
we have moved from a council flat, to a council bungalow (both 1 bedroomed) to buying a 3 bed semi.
we took out the mortgage and calculated it on my salary only therefore should anything happen (like kids etc) then our calculations mean we should still be fine and sugar dandy on my salary only.
of course, in the meantime the wifes salary means we have luxuries like a home cinema, scooby, holidays to the tropics.

I had some inside information about our house though and the proposed new development behind us.
there is no way we could afford to buy our property now, current valuations are an increase of 130% in 2 years.
we have no plans to move up the ladder as I made sure early on that we could add an extra bedroom in the form of a two storey extension.
Being in the building game has given us a few freebies as well to tart the place up.
we now have a 15k fitted kitchen that cost us about £1.5 to buy and fit (by far my favourite room in the house ).
we presently have a fixed mortgage for another 3years which I will hope will see us through any turbulence.
total borrowings prolly total about 3 -> 3.5 * my salary and when we come to negotiate the next mortgage I will prolly try to reduce the term to finish on my 43rd b'day.

its been refreshing to type this as sometimes I worry about our future (myself and my wife's) and when you actually write things down and put dates to them it looks an altogether rosier picture.

now then, how to sort out the pensions crisis??

Petem95

I was planning on going to an auction tonight to bid for a house (3 bed mid-terrace), but Ive backed out, so Im not going now! Would be gambling with too much cash.

Instead going to just wait and see what happens with the market - on the one hand I think prices are almost certain to fall (overall), but they've gone up so much in the past 5 years that even with a (v unlikely) 50% drop they'd still be expensive for 1st timers!

IMO its probably quite a good time to be trading up. I keep a very sharp eye on property prices in my area, and mid-range homes are clearly stuggling a bit with many agents cutting prices. Lots of properties down from £325k to £299 for example.

You might get a good price for your "cheaper" home, and be able to negotiate a good deal on something more expensive because the sellers are gettign a bit twitchy.

ProperCharlie

as davegtt said - we all make different decsions about what to do with ourselves. i've got a big mortgage which isn't ideal, but then i can afford it. i wouldn't mind being back at the flat with my fairly tiny mortgage if i was on my own, but having a family there would be extremely trying. i don't intend to move from this place in the forseeable future (if ever), it's a bit shabby but i like it. i don't have any other debt so overall i feel i have made a reasonable choice. i can still afford the odd bottle of beer or wine.

Jye

*cough*

ProperCharlie

let's just say that the local off licence isn't in danger of going out of business just yet.

Biggins

Thanks for all the input guys.

I'm still no where near to making a decission however. I sat in the back garden last night, looking out over the field immediately behind our 4' boundary fence, at the dairy herd with 2 six week old calves and thought (MMmmmmmm BEEF) this is fantastic. Seriously, the vista to the rear of our property is 2nd to none, it is a shame the council estate 2 roads away is starting to spread it's don't care attitude. I am not having a go at all people who are in, or have lived in, council houses as I know of some that look after them like their own and keep them tidy. Unfortunately, in our village it seems that they have scooped up all the local scum and housed them in the same road where they are gradually lowering the tone. Cars on bricks in front gardens, un-mown lawns, broken windows, litter and Chav kids moving round in gangs, you get the picture.

Another reason I want to move is to gain a garage. There is no space to erect one at our current property so this is a must for our next house. I can then buy something interesting to occupy it!!!

Discussing it last night with my wife, she is of the same opinion that to financially incumer ourselves at this point might not be the best idea. The ultimate solution would be to sell our current property and go and live over at my business premises for 1 year for FREE. It has a flat above the offices. We can then jump back on the property ladder with a little extra cash in the back pocket at a later date. The wife is not too impressed with this idea however!

More thinking to do. Ho hum ......

Jye

You should fight this Biggins. Get onto the council and complain. They should and usually do take action. I had this problem and for a while all I seemed to do was write letters of complaint. Make sure you c.c. it with your local councellor or MP (both?) as well. There is usually a hotline that you can phone to get some action. The last thing the council want is run down houses etc that they will have to repair. Where I stay was a bit run down a few years back but now it's much better. A lot of people have since bought thier council houses and this seems to have had a knock-on effect with the lazy ******* that never knew what a lawnmower or bin was for.

gl m8

davegtt

Biggins, you'll never escape from the trogs of the village, I live in a cul-de-sac on the edge of a town, all the council estates are a fair distance across town (I wouldnt walk it put it that way) yet on saturday night we had some tramps come and dump an old escort right outside my house in the cul-de-sac, it was nicked and was about to set fire to it until the police arrived... police was supposed to come and get it wednesday but it was still sat there this morning luckily I wasnt in, we was out with the car that night so they never saw the scooby on the drive which was good but if Id saw them I wouldnt have held back with a golf club in tow problem is now theyve found a new dumping spot I wonder how long it'll be til they return with the next car will definately move if they keep it up. not having a car dumped outside my house every week and maybe even set alight.

Brendan Hughes

I started looking for a house in Reigate in June 1999. General price was 120K.

As I was working abroad, I banked 30K.

Came back and bought one, the same size, in June 2000 for 165K.

My savings had gone up massively - but so had the house prices. All that it meant was that I had a bigger mortgage.

Do you really think you can save more than house prices will go up? It's your gamble.

Jye

But how many people does that not happen to Dave?

Can you back it up with statistics lol

davegtt

lol.. hey I never said about who it does and doesnt happen to, its not happened to my parents street or my old street (about 2 streets away on their estate which incidently is alot closer to the council estates than where we live now) Shame really as we are in a perfect area where we wanted to bring children up etc but this recent thing might put a downer on it.

And it wouldnt bother me too much either if I lived anywhere else on the street but Im right at the end of the street and this run down car is now right outside my house....

Jye

I'm pretty sure it's a one off m8

Biggins

Dudes this is a tough one.

It's a bit of a catch 22 situation.

Stay where we are and have plenty of spare cash athe end of the month. This will enable us to have nice cars etc. but have nowhere to garage them safely = theft potential. We will also have cash to start a family but won't have the space, area or schools.

Move to a more expensive bigger place in a better area with better schooling opportunities. Due to large mortgage and increased running costs, have less cash left over so not able to buy nice cars to put in new garage. Insufficient free cash to comfortably think of starting a family.

Ok, i've made the decission, i'm just going to draw £50k per year from the business and then worry when the coffers run dry.

Dream Weaver

Its a trade off. Stay in smaller houses while young and have plenty of cash to spend like Jye but then struggle with smaller houses when older, or invest while young then step up.

I usually agree with you on stuff Jye but not on this one. If you buy fairly big houses whilst yong it doesnt mean you are skint forever - you never know what will happen.

We couldnt afford our current house really when we bought it back in 98 - it was 50% over budget but we did it, were skint for a year but then better jobs, career progression etc and 6 years since buying we are looking for something much bigger now - current mortgage is about 8% of our income so not enough really. Our next mortgage will be about 25% of our income, but will be a bigger house with a garage for me to mess with the track cars and a garden/patio area for the Mrs to do gardening and parties

Investing wisely now will putus in good shape when retired, but we can still enjoy the moment.

We are not "saddos", but we do enjoy our home - we also enjoy the going out, toys, trackday cars etc.

davegtt

8% WOW must be pittence or ur earning wayyyy too much dosh

Dream Weaver

The mortgage has gone down a bit since we bought, and we were young back then so only on small admin wages. Current income is 5 times what it was when we bought the house, but the mortgage is relatively the same or less.

We have outgrown the house now size wise and financially, but there isnt much for sale around here under £300k

Jye

NP Dream Weaver (actually you'd be mad to agree with me on 'anything' m8, lol), but surely this proves we all have vastly different priorities. We don’t have kids nor do we intent to, so a big house is a waste of space and money to keep, heat, repair etc. We are also very rarely in the house, much preferring being out and about (I'm surrounded by the most beautiful hills, mountains and rivers in the UK) so again having a bigger or more prestigious house is not a priority. Even though we are not career orientated (another reason we dont want a bigger mortgage) both my partner and myself will have enough money to retire on without having to ‘down size’, and tbo we chose our house because of the location and not for any long term profits. Again, you cant make any money on your house if you are never going to sell it, and with no kids who are would we leave our property (the cat protection league most likely )? So really my position is entirely different to Biggins but is an alternative take on why some people might not buy into property as a future investment. I'd certainly buy a house (or move from one to another) for its location, but I'd never want to sacrafice anything else in my life just to pay for it. Hope that clarifies my position

ProperCharlie

Jye - ever considered a tent? You'll save a fair bit on council tax, you know...




is that your burd, btw?

Jye

I'd be in that tent in a second m8

Graz

It's on a bit of a slope though

Nimbus

The problem is no one can really advise you on the best thing to do. It depends on what your priorities are and what's important to you. If you can work out was is important (living in a good area, garage, nice views, low mortgage, childern, nice cars, security, desposable income or a host of other that haven't been mentioned), then you can work out how best to achieve them. If that means moving, then do it now (or at least sell now and live in your business premisis short term). If it means staying put then relax...

ajm

What, in addition to his existing "discount"?

Jye

OK, OK NACRO Was Poll Tax anyhow muppets

Never knew you for a cheap shot taker ajm, now noted in my little black book though