Mse Post - "stuck In 1 Bedroom Flat"

[ImA20SomethingGetMeOutOfHere]

After having a peek on Rightmove I was amazed (and a little bit upset) to find that the guy who lives upstairs has put his 1 bed on the market for only £105,000 which obviously undercuts us quite considerably.

How very dare they!

On a sadder note it seems that the general consensus is that she'd be better off financially leaving her hubby and going on the social.

[ʎqɐqɹǝʞɐɥs]

I'm afraid that my husband refused to get married until we had a mortgage and I made a mistake and plumped for this flat because I wanted to be with him.

[spivT]

Probably because an EA advised her that 'we expect to achieve' blah, blah and other clichés. They are still seen as experts by a lot of people. It takes a brave and experienced seller, or a wealthy one, to say "nah, stick it on at 119k and get rid."

A one-bedroom flat for 119k ?? Are you insane ?

[Johnny Cash]

Yes there is something she can do - VOTE GORDON OUT!!!!!

This is definately part of the problem. When the Chancellor, who was receiving accolades, not just from himself, for years, keeps repeating no more boom and bust and that seeps into the psyche and the public most of whom glance at a red top newspapar now and then and catch the 6 o'clock news simply believe that they are being honest. They don't assume that the British Chancellor is in fact lying every time he opens his mouth. People generally are trusting, and probably have a right to expect people in positions of responsibility to be behaving responsibly. Trouble is they are mostly lying conniving devious *****s whose very existence depends on taking money from other people's pockets. People have been scammed. It is sad. They/we deserve better. People really need to wake up to just how bad a government this has been and what a liar the Labour cabinet as a whole are. All of them. Worst group of policiticans I can recall.

Absolutely spot on.

Problem is, the UK populace isnt savvy enough to get this or the current shower would be out on their ear, and prospective replacements would have to do better.

Maybe people are just too fat dumb and happy which is why they would rather vote on X factor / Big Brother than get off their arses and go and vote in a general election. People really do get the governments which they deserve.

[Turnbull2000]

I'm friends with someone who will likely find themselves facing the same dilemma. She's only 23, fairly low paid and still in Uni education part-time. She's always been desperate to move away from the parents, but I urged her to wait as prices should fall. It obviously went in one ear and out the other, as she purchased a new-build one-bedroom flat through a shared-ownership scheme at a rather shoddy location in Stoke-on-Trent. Her thoughts are "at least I'm on the ladder". That is an exact quote.

She is however, training to become an architect so may eventually have the money to escape. Even so, I can't see this move being anything but very costly.

Makes you despair how these people have been brainwashed :angry:

Edited January 7, 2009 by Turnbull2000

[GBTOUSA]

Reminds me of a guy I used to work with.

Living in a one bedroom flat with an 18 month old daughter and a wife who didn't work - she apparently wouldn't earn enough to cover the childcare costs.

He was thinking of selling end of 2006 but even then the price of his flat was lagging because of the over supply of flats in the area generally - it was worth little more than they'd paid for it then.

His wife (Christ knows what she was thinking) was itching to have another child.

I wouldn't like to guess what sort of situation they're in now.

[gogo2008]

Sorry for double post, but how is this possible?

Interest only mortgage? How can you not pay anything off after 3 years?

She says it IS a repayment mortgage, but has been taken out over 38 YEARS!!!!!!!

[GBTOUSA]

Absolutely spot on.

Problem is, the UK populace isnt savvy enough to get this or the current shower would be out on their ear, and prospective replacements would have to do better.

Maybe people are just too fat dumb and happy which is why they would rather vote on X factor / Big Brother than get off their arses and go and vote in a general election. People really do get the governments which they deserve.

I couldn't agree more.

Edited January 7, 2009 by GBTOUSA

[Savo]

Always a pleasure to see the compassion flow.

Seriously, some of you need to grow up.

Probably the most worrying things is this is from a (rough calc) 4.5 x single earnings debt. I dread to think how many more since they bought have been higher.

[Smith]

Always a pleasure to see the compassion flow.

Seriously, some of you need to grow up.

Can see where you're coming from but if people hadn't been so stupid as to pay these prices and had simply refused to play the game we wouldn't be in this mess. Do you think this person would have compassion for those who hadn't bought if things had turned out differently? I don't know her of course, but I suspect not really.

[Agentimmo]

I'm friend with someone who will likely find themselves facing the same dilemma. She's only 23, fairly low paid and still in Uni education part-time. She's always been desperate to move away from the parents, but I urged her to wait as prices should fall. It obviously went in one ear and out the other, as she purchased a new-build one-bedroom flat through a shared-ownership scheme at a rather shoddy location in Stoke-on-Trent. Her thoughts are "at least I'm on the ladder". That is an exact quote.

She is however, training to become an architect so may eventually have the money to escape. Even so, I can't see this move being anything but very costly.

Makes you despair how these people have been brainwashed :angry:

Bejesus !!

I stayed with my parents all through Uni.

Rented when I moved out in last year. A scummy place with 5 others.

Rented for first 5 years of new job.

Rented for 2 years when moved away to next job.

In all, I RENTED for 8+ years, before buying a house. Saved up damned hard all that time (late 80's onwards).

The UK obsession with BUYING just never appealed to me. Just because you move out, doesn't mean you should saddle yourself with debt straight away. Sad for your friend to be throwing away her FREEDOM at such a young age..........

[The XYY Man]

Absolutely spot on.

Problem is, the UK populace isnt savvy enough to get this or the current shower would be out on their ear, and prospective replacements would have to do better.

Maybe people are just too fat dumb and happy which is why they would rather vote on X factor / Big Brother than get off their arses and go and vote in a general election. People really do get the governments which they deserve.

This kind of comment is becoming fairly typical on a lot of threads, and for a good reason - it is 100% correct.

But by speaking in this manner, the message you invariably send out is that you are exactly the same as those you decry - i.e. you don't actually do anything about it, or come up with a workable solution, you just scoff, feel superior and carry on playing on your Wii or watching BBC4.

You may be intelligent, you may be successful, but you have got that same government that the "people" (i.e. YOU) deserve and all you can do is post your indignation on a shitty house price website.

We - the people - need to change this crap once and for all for something better and it must be inclusive of all, no matter whether they watch Big Brother or listen to Radio 4.

We can all put the world to rights on here or down the pub, but I'm looking for the person who can do it for real - and I don't think it's you or me my friend.

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up...

X

Y

Y

[Savo]

Can see where you're coming from but if people hadn't been so stupid as to pay these prices and had simply refused to play the game we wouldn't be in this mess. Do you think this person would have compassion for those who hadn't bought if things had turned out differently? I don't know her of course, but I suspect not really.

Oh ok, they were playing a game?

Reread it, it sounds like the husband was pigheaded etc but actually he just had some old fashioned morals. There's going to be hundreds of thousands of people caught up in this crap. For those of you that aren't, you should just be happy about that, and not sit there on the sidelines constantly talking about MEW, plasma's and 4x4's as if everyone did it. Plenty of people won't have, but they'll still get burnt. Pointing fingers and talking the **** just makes you a ****.

Smith, i'm not saying that's the case with you but lately that's a constant theme on here.

[guitarman001]

I can almost sympathise... I almost got suckered into buying last Christmas. But then after clear warnings and my brain getting switched on, I saw it all for what it was. So I don't feel for them all that much at all. Who on EARTH would spend THREE QUARTERS of their monthly income on mortgage alone!? Even more, she had debts before she took it out! This is the type that has helped fuel the boom; they have been warned no doubt, many times. I know many like her and I admit I take certain satisfaction in seeing their condition deteriorate having not listenend to a bloody word anybody told them against the whole scam. I don't want hyper-inflation.... but I want inflation to hit a high so that mortgage payments can't be met by those who've bought into the boom and are sitting tight just now; unemployment will shake it up a bit for sure. People who can't afford homes shouldn't be in them. Mortgages shouldn't be available at greater than 4x salary. Two incomes should NOT be taken into account: just one. In fact I partly believe that the two working parents scenario is terrible for a decent family life. Idiots like Sibley will promote 12 hour shifts 6 days a week for both mother and father, but we are beginning to see things cracking up at the seams. There's only so long people can work before quality deteriorates and families break down, there's only so much competition and low prices you can have in the retail sector, there's a limit to how much a damn home should cost (else Krusty and Sibley would see them at 50x multiples). Greed, greed, greed, employers squeezing out every ounce from their workers, government neve making the right decisions, financial fraudsters who will retain their power and bank balances..... and worst of all.... the greed, idiocy and embarrassment of the British public (if Brits are even a majority in Britain anymore....). Yes yes yes... so banks were lending freely and all that jazz... but the willingness of the people to do anything to improve their situation regardless of consequence is an absolute disgrace and look at what's happening because of it. Sure, many don't deserve what's happening. But some do, and it'll serve them right if their pension pots decrease or their home values go down. These 'adults' have behaved no better than children. I can see no alternative than to go back to traditional values and how things were run years and years ago.

As for voting labour out... we have a war on our hands. I half expect the next ballot boxes to be pre-ticked. We have a swathe of complete losers and welfare dependent (amongst others) who will vote their ars£s off in order to keep labour in power so that they get their benefits. Well... we can't let it happen. Every vote counts this time... because if labour get in again... I fear the dictatorship will be complete. I'm voting for the majority party that will get labour out of power... and that's the conservatives. They might not be great, but it's the change that's needed more than anything else.

[guitarman001]

Smith, i'm not saying that's the case with you but lately that's a constant theme on here.

A lot of people here have the right to be angry and freely voice their opinions - freedom of speech. Besides, if home-loaners can brag on the way up and look down on renters during the boom, I can damn well hope that prices come down and deride them during the bust.

[Smith]

Oh ok, they were playing a game?...

I can see what you're saying, and I do indeed have sympathy for these people on one level, but I still think that, yes, this was a game and people should have had the basic sense to not play along. Two years ago when a one-bed flat in my village would have cost me 8x my salary I didn't buy one. It was such an obvious decision not to buy one that I didn't give it a second thought. But lots of other, stupid or greedy, people did buy one, which is precisely why the game got out of control. I sympathise with the individuals, but they are the very cause of the bubble. Bubbles only work if people are prepared to play along.

[Agentimmo]

A lot of people here have the right to be angry and freely voice their opinions - freedom of speech. Besides, if home-loaners can brag on the way up and look down on renters during the boom, I can damn well hope that prices come down and deride them during the bust.

Hear bliddy Hear !!!

[grizzly bear]

I wonder how common this scenario will be over the coming years?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showth....html?t=1392017

I find that very very sad, although I suspect this will be common over the next few years. I found the comments about not wanting kids unless they bought bizarre especially when the purchase was of a 1 bedroom flat. If they had rented and it was too expensive they could walk away, or get something bigger in a cheaper area.

I bet their mortgage wasn't more than 3.5 x joint but as I have harped on about here before, thats too much to borrow if you want to have kids before a chunk is paid back.

[Savo]

A lot of people here have the right to be angry and freely voice their opinions - freedom of speech. Besides, if home-loaners can brag on the way up and look down on renters during the boom, I can damn well hope that prices come down and deride them during the bust.

Angry about what exactly? You're on a site called house price crash during a house price crash....

If you can't move on from what's gone on you really are going to struggle.

[Smith]

Angry about what exactly? You're on a site called house price crash during a house price crash....

If you can't move on from what's gone on you really are going to struggle.

I'm not angry, incidentally, in case either of you were wondering.

I'm not that smug either, though I probably could be if I was that way inclined.

My reward is my own peace of mind and, possibly, a cheap flat. Like the one I bought in London for £36k in 1997.

Smith

[Savo]

I can see what you're saying, and I do indeed have sympathy for these people on one level, but I still think that, yes, this was a game and people should have had the basic sense to not play along. Two years ago when a one-bed flat in my village would have cost me 8x my salary I didn't buy one. It was such an obvious decision not to buy one that I didn't give it a second thought. But lots of other, stupid or greedy, people did buy one, which is precisely why the game got out of control. I sympathise with the individuals, but they are the very cause of the bubble. Bubbles only work if people are prepared to play along.

Maybe i should make it clear.......they weren't playing a game, sounds like they were just getting on with things. Not everyone is obsessed by house\flat prices

I am.....i just try not to be too bitter (again not saying you are)

[scuuzeme]

God, reading that took me right back to the early nineties !

Earnings were pathetic as a young man, jobs extremely hard to find, and so many people around my age (I'd have been about 24 or so) had bought at the top of the market a couple of years previously and were firmly in negative equity.

I rented , since my job required me to be fairly mobile and really only earned me enough to feed and house myself in a very basic fashion.

I couldn't even afford to have the central heating on at the time, or the cost of a phone line. I'd sit in the kitchen with the doors closed to conserve the cooking heat and that from the boiler if I needed a bath that night, dressed in 2 pairs of trousers, a good few jumpers and a woolly hat.

I can't say this was good in any way, but I didn't have any choice in the matter if I wanted to stay on my own two feet financially.

It was a lot harder to get debt from the banks at the time, so few people were able to borrow thousands to maintain the lifestyle they'd liked to have had.

There were many friends and colleagues of mine in much the same place as that girl on the MSE thread, stuck in NE, barely able to pay the mortgage if at all, needing to move because of new children or a job relocation.

I had a pint with a mate of mine from the time recently, he offered the opinion that we might be the last generation that remembers living like that, I think he's probably right.

I have a feeling that a whole lot of people are about to find out what it's like and it's going to come as a bit of a nasty shock.

For me, I hated it, but it didn't feel entirely unexpected (and in comparison with the past couple of generations it wasn't that bad), so there wasn't so much of the shock factor I'd expect to see now.

[Guest mattsta1964]

Very, she seems like a decent sort tho', shame.

Yeah. Agreed

[Smith]

Maybe i should make it clear.......they weren't playing a game...

It amuses me when people think that because you haven't agreed with something they said they need to say it again more clearly. It works with a ten-year old but not with grown ups, unfortunately.

I have understood you perfectly. You don't think they were playing a game. I don't agree with you. I'm talking about games in the sense of game theory here, incidentally; I'm not suggesting that they were being flippant in buying a flat.

Grown ups take decisions. Sometimes they prove to have been wrong, as in this case. They took that decision in spite of very clear evidence that it was the wrong thing to do. Therefore my sympathy for them is limited.

[zebbedee]

Unfortunately, people are easily taken in and far too trusting of 'experts' (generally selling something).

I'm an 'expert' a synthetic organic chemist to be precise an d know my stuff but when I don't know I'll ******** with the best of them if it means making some money.