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So What Was A Ftb Place In Years Gone By


Topher Bear

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HOLA441

There is this current trend to think that FTBs should be looking at 1 and 2 bed flats (and if their lucky 1 and 2 bed houses) as a first step on the ladder, and that this has always been the case. Is this Fact or Fiction?

To be honest I don't know, but we could do some research right here. For all those lucky enough to have been a FTB before the madness that have been the 80's, 90's and now 00's in terms of housing, and for everyone else their parents/grandparents experiences. Please let us know here in this thread, when and what did you/your parents/grandparents buy as their FTB property?

I'll start

My parents bought their first place in 1968, it was a 3 bed new build, but they did get significant help from my grandfather.

whos next?

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HOLA443

Parents; FTB 1978

2 bed terraced house for............................. £7K !

Price for similar property the year after shot up to £12K!!!! nearly 50%

Mortgage was for 12 years; relatively easy monthly payments.

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I'll start

My parents bought their first place in 1968, it was a 3 bed new build, but they did get significant help from my grandfather.

whos next?

My parents put a deposit down on a 2 bed new build semi with garage and a garden in 1967.. rented and moved in once it was built. Don't know the cost.. around 8-10k I'd guess.

Looking at the area (no I'm not saying which area).. todays cost would be about £160k for a similar "secondhand" property (new builds have a minimum of 4-5 bedrooms!!)

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HOLA446

3 bed terrace for £31,000 in 1982. Thought it might be interesting to look up salary at that time which was around £9500. Seems to me like a sensible multiple but i do remember sweating buckets when interest rates went up to I seem to remember 16%!

I also recall having house valued in late 80's at nearly £90,000. We decided to move but had buyers pull out, got gazumped in a falling market and eventually decided to sell and move in with mother in law(2 kids and dog in tow)We actually sold in 1992 for £58,000.

We effectively STR and spookilly here we are in rented having sold at a much better time on the housing cycle (cause that's what it is as those of us who have been there know).

Last time things were bad, this time the credit situation (did you see Tonight with Trevor MacDonald last night?) means that it will be financial ruin for hundreds of thousands of ordainary people trying to live extraordinary lives. Living beyond needs seems to me to be the fashion of the last 10 years.

I actually had tears in my eyes last night thinking about that poor family who having kept up with the Joneses have to sell the lot, caravan 2 cars and house. Now theres a thing a view of the market that is actually current. Their lovely home was worth many thousands less than they had expected, with the EA saying "The markets not as stroing as it was 6 months ago, but it is still very strong. I would value the property at £175,000." They had clearly been expecting £200000 which would have actually covered their debt.

I do not think that theirs is an unusual case, it is just the tip of the iceberg.

The man trying to sort out their problems just gave up, they were beyond help. The debt councelling lady made the most illuminating comment "people are using house value as a credit limit." Now that could be OK while value rises but how many people have now got debt mountains higher than asset value?

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Guest Charlie The Tramp

First property 1970 2 bed maisonette with garden and garage £3,950. Repayments £28 per month at 8% went to £32 per month at 15%. Earnings 2k.

Six years on 1976 4 bed detached house £17,950. Repayments £116 per month at 11% went to £132 per month at 15%. Earnings 5k.

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HOLA449

my parents bought a 2 bed maisonette in colliers wood, sw london for 13k in 1977, sold it for 19k 1979. same property today value c.200k.

my mum didn't work (simply didn't need to!) and my dad was a school teacher on about 5k when they bought it.

they then moved to wimbledon - paid 19k for a 3 bed house that today is worth about 400k, though they did extend the kitchen a few years back. actually even the cost of extensions/conversions has shot up - they paid 10k for an extension 8 years ago and it would cost 35k today!

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HOLA4410
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HOLA4411

In the North West the average salary (3x) has always until recently been able to buy a nice 3 bed semi in a nice part of town. Even the lowest paid factory workers could buy terraced homes.

Now you need 7 or 8 times average salary for the same semis. It has never been so expensive in real terms than now.

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HOLA4412

We bought our first property in Southgate (N14) in April 2004 - a three bed flat in need of some modernisation for 180,000.

We have now almost finished the refurbishment (with 7,000 pounds investment a a lot of our own work). We are quite happy with the purchase, it is in a good location, has a lot of natural light due to eight windows and a brand new kitchen. We currently spend 1,000 pounds per month on a 25 yr repayment mortgage, and would have to spend the same on rent. So far our purchase has worked out as we planned. I do not expect the prices to fall significantly in our area, and we wanted to have a place that we can decorate as we want after 4 years renting (we spent 40,000 pounds in four years just on rent!). In fact I am confident that we can sell our flat with a profit in about 2 yrs when we plan to move abroad.

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HOLA4413

simon99 is right.

The turnaround in fortunes for the low and averagely paid workers has be swift and brutal - basically five years.

I can remember when we were looking at places to buy, the vendors you would meet were just very different people.

One chirpy chap selling his house was a self-employed van driver (white van man). He was moving to a cheaper area to have more space for his toddler. His girlfriend was looking after the kid, and doing a part time college course. Say he'd bought in 1999, he'd have only paid 50-55k for this place on the marketing in 2003 in the 160s, with some cheap-as-chips DIY improvments. So they were having a nice laid, back life, girlfiend spending time with the baby, doing her course. Good on them - everyone should have that freedom.

How different it would have been for us. We could have just about afforded it on an eyebrow-raising multiple, but there would have been little slack with two incomes maxed out.

At one moulding flat with free-standing electric fan heaters flat we were viewing for 115k, two other people were being shown round at the same time (2003 was a crazy year). One pricessy girl with her un-the-range new Clioparked outside shrieked, 'Oh, my god! Not for me!', and literally ran out like she'd seen a ghost.

I wondered what the conversations must have been between the vendors and their friends, 'Facking hell, Trev. Got me facking 'ouse in the market, an' all these facking posh c*nts, keep comin' rahnd. Look like they'd use a cotton bud to pick their nose summuv 'um'.

Some people think homeownership came in with Maggie. My working class Welsh grandparents bought a terraced house as soon as they were married, as did their parents before them.

Housing costs have never been so tough.

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HOLA4414
Guest muttley
We bought our first property in Southgate (N14) in April 2004 - a three bed flat in need of some modernisation for 180,000.

We have now almost finished the refurbishment (with 7,000 pounds investment a a lot of our own work). We are quite happy with the purchase, it is in a good location, has a lot of natural light due to eight windows and a brand new kitchen. We currently spend 1,000 pounds per month on a 25 yr repayment mortgage, and would have to spend the same on rent. So far our purchase has worked out as we planned. I do not expect the prices to fall significantly in our area, and we wanted to have a place that we can decorate as we want after 4 years renting (we spent 40,000 pounds in four years just on rent!). In fact I am confident that we can sell our flat with a profit in about 2 yrs when we plan to move abroad.

LION. I do not know Southgate and have not seen your flat,which sounds lovely.Why,it's even got windows.However,I have to say that your timescale of 2 years seems a little ambitious.You say that you don't expect prices to fall significantly in your area,but they would have to rise in order for you to profit,unless you bought well BMV.

If you are so confidant that there will be no significant drop then what attracted you to this site?

Good luck with your plan.

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HOLA4415

We bought our house, a 3 bed mid-terrace for £7000(swindon). We had a baby so mortgage based on 1 income x3, my husband worked at post office supplies so average income or lower I guess, about £2300 pa

We were fortunate that as we were on the council housing list we were eligible for 100% mortgage.

The house was on the market for £7500 but vendors agreed to reduce as that was our maximum and they were selling to move in with inlaws to save for something better.

We sold 2 years later for £17,500, told at the time that prices would never increase like that again!!!!

Vendors must have been gutted, they thought they had acted responsibly but lost out big time.

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HOLA4416
LION. I do not know Southgate and have not seen your flat,which sounds lovely.Why,it's even got windows.However,I have to say that your timescale of 2 years seems a little ambitious.You say that you don't expect prices to fall significantly in your area,but they would have to rise in order for you to profit,unless you bought well BMV.

If you are so confidant that there will be no significant drop then what attracted you to this site?

Good luck with your plan.

I know Southgate very well and prices are falling across the board. It has a tube and good schools which will stop prices falling drastically (as opposed to supposedly up-coming places like Hackney which have no such infrastructure and is my tip for 40% drops...)

I suspect that LION is just trying to make himself feel better about buying at the top of the market and certainly he'll have saved a few quid buying a place in need of work - but to expect to walk away with a profit in 2 years is very optimistic! We could be approaching the trough in the market by then - not the best time to sell.

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HOLA4417

My parents bought their 3 bed semi in st.albans for £13k in 1969, now valued at £245K. They still regret not buying a 4 bedroom just round the corner instead, but the price was four thousand more (17K) and they didn't think they could stretch their budget that far (now valued at £375k !!!....

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HOLA4418

My first house, purchased at the age of 30, was a three bedroom detached house. I paid £13,000 for it in 1975.

This house was representative of what the average middle class FTB bought back then. I am appalled that these same people today cannot even afford a one bedroom flat. It just shows how absurdly inflated property prices have distorted the market.

It's wicked - what we are seeing is a wholesale re-distribution of wealth from the young in favour of those who were able to buy at favourble prices in the past.

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HOLA4419
. The debt councelling lady made the most illuminating comment "people are using house value as a credit limit." Now that could be OK while value rises but how many people have now got debt mountains higher than asset value?

Atually it's not OK in any circumstance. A lot of people do this with credit cards as well, they treat the limits on their credit cards as TARGETS which they MUST SPEND. The rational response is actually to reduce your mortgage as fast as you possibly can; by INCREASING it you are jeopardising the roof over your head. People have such f*cked-up ideas about money.

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HOLA4421

My grandparents bought a 3 bedroom semi detached house with a £2,000 loan from the bank in the 1950's, it was sold in 2002 for £80,000 after my grandmother died, houses in that area now are around the £120,000 mark.

In 2000 i looked at a 3 bedroom end terrace, long garden, wooden garage, not too bad an area(but it had nice views of a reclamation centre) for £48,000.

3 bed terrace/end terrace in better areas were going for between £50,000 and £65,000.

These houses have more than doubled in price now, at the time my basic salary was about £17,000, so with sensible lending multiples i could have afforded these properties, however with not much savings, car loans, other expenses i did not want to take out a 100 per cent mortgage and risk going into negative equity.

Where is the well and truly p*ssed off emoticon.

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HOLA4422
There is this current trend to think that FTBs should be looking at 1 and 2 bed flats (and if their lucky 1 and 2 bed houses) as a first step on the ladder, and that this has always been the case.  Is this Fact or Fiction? 

To be honest I don't know, but we could do some research right here.  For all those lucky enough to have been a FTB before the madness that have been the 80's, 90's and now 00's in terms of housing, and for everyone else their parents/grandparents experiences.  Please let us know here in this thread, when and what did you/your parents/grandparents buy as their FTB property?

I'll start

My parents bought their first place in 1968, it was a 3 bed new build, but they did get significant help from my grandfather.

whos next?

First house 1975 - 3 bedroom mid-terrace in cheap area of S Essex, £10,500.

sold it for £11,750 in 1977 and bought 3 bed semi in nicer area for £16,500 (got a £14.5k mortgage and every one said we were mad) Sold this in 1994 for £95,000 and took out a £110k mortgage to buy present house for £180k- 4 bed detached in expensive area. Lots of improvements and 2 extensions and it was valued at £650,000 in April this year. Paid off mortgage with savings this year. :)

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HOLA4423
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HOLA4424

this thread is unbelievable. I read the channel 4 forum quite a lot and ftbers are always told we're expecting too much and to buy a one bed and shut up cos everyone has it tough.

When I buy I'd like to buy somewhere big enough to have a family, as my dream has always been to be a full time mum. i don't see this happening as there is no way even with 30% drops we could buy on my husbands salary.

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HOLA4425

The Channel 4 Forum is full of w@nkers. Read the recent thread about someone not being able to move into their new house so wanting to stay in their old house for a bit. From the reactions of the people on there you'd think they'd suggested biting babies heads off and feeding them to the wolves. Bunch of c*nts. Even with 50% falls this generation of FTBs will not be able to buy as much house for their money as the baby-boomers.

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