redrick

Evening HPCers I registered this week, having been lurking for a long while. So long that I can't remember how I heard about the site... Anyway, it's compulsive stuff and I'm often struck by how the subjects discussed on here pop up on the national news the next day. My interest in this subject is mostly that of many parents of teenagers - how will they ever buy a place of their own and will it be anything more than a cardboard box? My first house was a 2 bed semi that I bought when I was 21. My wife bought a 2-bed terrace at around the same time. I was an apprentice and she was a lowly civil servant. When we married we sold hers (never crossed our minds to rent it out - we were right naive). Moved to a bigger place when the kids came along and twice more with my job. Just in case any younger members think we had it good (and looking back, I reckon we have been fortunate), consider my dear old granny's tale (she died last year aged 100 with her mind sharp as a tack). She stopped work when she and grandad had children and never worked again. Grandad was a metallurgist in the Sheffield steel works and they bought a new semi in the 1930s that was big enough to bring up a family of three. No mortgage - just savings and a loan from friends that they paid back pretty quickly. When he retired, they used his lump sum and the equity in their family home to retire to a detached house in the Cotswolds that has just sold for over £300K. Will we ever see days like the 30s again? Part of me hopes so, for the sake of my children although I expect it's going to be a bumpy ride for a lot of us. Hold on ....