[Topher Bear]

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?

[zzg113]

IIRC Martello's FTBuy was a 4-bed detached, as was his parents before him (their FTBuy was a 4bed det. as well, not that they left him a 4bed det).

[out2lunch]

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.

[EmpiricalBear]

Well I bought my first place in 1985 at the age of 26.

It was a three bedroom house in Bristol for £28,500. I still keep paying the endowment policy but it will come out a little short of course.

In 2000 I spent more on a car :-)

[beerhunter]

Topher Bear, on Dec 11 2004, 01:00 AM, said:

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?
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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!!)

[paranoidmick]

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?

[CrashedOutAndBurned]

Parents place a 2 bed semi with garage for, if I recall, 7k. Would have been early 1970s.

[Milkshock]

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!

[simon99]

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.

[Lion]

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.

[CrashedOutAndBurned]

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.

[Pensive]

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.