What's The Demographic On This Site?

[Guest_Bosworth_*]

Perhaps off topic, but I wanted to try and understand the demographics of users of this site. It's difficult to pick through the posts (and the trolls!) for the reality of people's situations on here.

So me first.

I'm a bear.

33. Above average earner in the City.

Own a flat valued at £640k with ~55% equity today - bought in Nov 2003.

Never engaged in property speculation or BTL.

Decided not to STR as I am settled in my HOME and have recently married.

Hoping for significant falls to then buy a large family home.

Am I the odd one out here or are there others like me?

[Guest grumpy-old-man]

Perhaps off topic, but I wanted to try and understand the demographics of users of this site. It's difficult to pick through the posts (and the trolls!) for the reality of people's situations on here.

So me first.

I'm a bear.

33. Above average earner in the City.

Own a flat valued at £640k with ~55% equity today - bought in Nov 2003.

Never engaged in property speculation or BTL.

Decided not to STR as I am settled in my HOME and have recently married.

Hoping for significant falls to then buy a large family home.

Am I the odd one out here or are there others like me?

remember though, if you need to sell your current property to enable the purchase of your next larger property, then your current property will also fall in value, so the gap could/prob will be the same as it is now.......although the amount of debt you will have to borrow to secure your next property will be less obviously, so you will save on IR payments, looking at it from that pov.

[maxdiver]

25 male working in aberdeen - getting well paid (probably not by city standards)

own a flat valued at 140k - mort. of 80k but i could pay it off tomorrow if i wanted

too late to speculate (i am irish)

not looking to be in the UK longterm and i don't really care if there is a crash or not - more interested in HPC as part of the economy.

Very Bearish - Grisly even

[Sheer Heart Attack]

Bear.

33. Above average earner in North East England.

Own a house which I am trying to sell.

Never engaged in property speculation or BTL.

Hoping the bubble will last 6 months longer so I can get out of the market - not much hope of that!

[Timm]

I'm a bear.

33. Above average earner in the City.

Own a flat valued at £640k with ~55% equity today - bought in Nov 2003.

Never engaged in property speculation or BTL.

Am I the odd one out here or are there others like me?

I'm a bear, but I'm not like you.

37. Planner (Ex-Estate Agent)

Bought, refurbed, and sold some flats, never made less that 50% in <12 months. Sold last one in 2003, bought houseboat.

Left Agency in 2005 in order to retrain and reposition self. Sold Boat in Oct 07 and moved to rented.

In other words, I used to be an uber bull.

Now I'm an uber bear.

Edited November 29, 2007 by Timm

[fluffy666]

Perhaps off topic, but I wanted to try and understand the demographics of users of this site. It's difficult to pick through the posts (and the trolls!) for the reality of people's situations on here.

So me first.

I'm a bear.

33. Above average earner in the City.

Own a flat valued at £640k with ~55% equity today - bought in Nov 2003.

Never engaged in property speculation or BTL.

Decided not to STR as I am settled in my HOME and have recently married.

Hoping for significant falls to then buy a large family home.

Am I the odd one out here or are there others like me?

I'm a human..

34. Above average earner in Bath.

Own approx 40% of a house valued @ £250k. Bought originally in 2000, moved last year. 18 years 11 months to go on mortgage, not that I'm counting or anything.

Never did BTL.. wife has been going on about why shouldn't we go into BTL for the past 2 or so years.

Bosworth - you do realise that you could move to my area, buy a decent 4/5 bed family home and have no mortgage. ALthough I'd probably have to murder you (nothing personal).

[Selling up]

32, part time GP earning between 40 & 50k (not being deliberately vague, depends on how much locum work I do)

Edit: and part time musician earning more or less nothing!

I owned a house 02-06 then STR'd.

Edited November 29, 2007 by Selling up

[Orbital]

Coming up to 30 (oh no!). Own a semi in London. Hoping for a drop in prices as the sort of place I want next has rocketed away. But happy knowing that if nothing changes I have secured a little semi for my (future) family - heck if most of the country squeezes into little terraces then I cant really complain.

GL to the OP, guess that extra equity is what comes of being born 5 years earlier or so. But being bitter about that is like being bitter that I wasnt born into a super rich family.

remember though, if you need to sell your current property to enable the purchase of your next larger property, then your current property will also fall in value, so the gap could/prob will be the same as it is now.......although the amount of debt you will have to borrow to secure your next property will be less obviously, so you will save on IR payments, looking at it from that pov.

Not sure I get that. I have a 200k house and want to by a 400k one. Thats a 200k jump. Prices fall 50% woohoo! My house is now worth 100k and the one I want is worth 200k.

Ouch I just lost a lot of equity - easy come easy go! But I can (or could in the good ol' days) get a mortgage for 200k and buy the house of my dreams. I'm never gonna get a mortgage for 400k! Also save a bundle on stamp duty!! Of course I could STR but it's not worth the risk - but accept individuals will view this differently .

(actual amounts changed slightly to ease the math ! I understand the concept of -ve equity etc blah blah)

Edited November 29, 2007 by Orbital

[Belfast Boy]

Bear

37. Above average earner for Northern Ireland.

Sold my home in July. No other properties.

Was viewing and bidding on other houses, before I did an internet search for 'housing bubble'.

I'm wishing I looked like my avatar Screw house prices

Edited November 29, 2007 by Belfast Boy

[Joey Buttafueco Jr]

Perhaps off topic, but I wanted to try and understand the demographics of users of this site. It's difficult to pick through the posts (and the trolls!) for the reality of people's situations on here.

So me first.

I'm a bear.

33. Above average earner in the City.

Own a flat valued at £640k with ~55% equity today - bought in Nov 2003.

Never engaged in property speculation or BTL.

Decided not to STR as I am settled in my HOME and have recently married.

Hoping for significant falls to then buy a large family home.

Am I the odd one out here or are there others like me?

Ditto

Ditto. Ditto

Own house, but not much equity, bought 6 months ago

Ditto

Almost Ditto, not married yet

Have family home, but not large enough - I would love some land to bring kids up rather than poky garden.

[Guest Mr Parry]

32. Self-employed. Waste and land remediation consultant. Spend nothing in the UK, mostly in Thailand, so I guess I'm a mulit-millionaire. Don't know what average earner is any more, all I know is I have a quite flamboyant lifestyle, ££££££ money in bank, no debts at all.

Have flat in South-West, no mortgage. No interest in buying anything bigger in the UK, the wife refuses, point blank, to live here.

Have land, houses, farms, the good life in the Far East. Spread across North East and the Eastern Seaboard of Thailand.

No longer consider the UK my home. In all honesty, it's a miserable place. Just here to make what I can out of it whilst it's still the '1st World'. A real hypocrite? Yeah, probably, but who cares?

I do feel for those in this country forced to struggle because of the incompetence of successive UK governments economic policies. A human interest in HPC really, my family lost all in last crash.

[Guest_Bosworth_*]

Bosworth - you do realise that you could move to my area, buy a decent 4/5 bed family home and have no mortgage. ALthough I'd probably have to murder you (nothing personal).

Indeed. Some good friends of mine sold up and moved to North Wales with the equity from their home a year or so ago. No job, but how much do you need to earn when you've got no housing costs? Made me think. Briefly.

[HPC Stalker]

29. Jealous of all the above-average earners above!

PT Teacher with 4 happy, healthy children.

Accidentally STR'd as chain collapsed but went ahead with sale in June. Now most happily renting for a year or so to let it all play out.

Have a BTL from about 5 yrs ago, but won't sell as lovely young family living there long term and this is honestly a long term investment for the children.

Enjoying learning so much on this site and feeling like I have 'insider' knowledge!

[The Ayatollah Buggeri]

34, university lecturer in c20 history, live in York, earn £35k, rent a flat. No wife or kids, and don't intend to go there either (seen too many friends hit by the aftermath of failed marriages, and if you're the male partner you get doubly hammered). I have never owned any residential property (missed the boat - HPI took off while I was a postgrad student and flats within a sane distance of work were already going for 4-5x my salary by the time I got my first 'real' job). No debt, have saved up £40k for deposit and am waiting for the crash to bite. My game plan is to buy when prices are down to around 3x salary (i.e. I can get somewhere decent for around the £100k mark), and put down a large-ish deposit to reduce the term of the mortgage in order to make up for lost time. A combination of work (in specialised job - very few opportunities overseas) and family (support for elderly parent) responsibilities rule out emigration, but I'd consider it otherwise. Also reluctant to buy because a job in the south-west is likely to come up in the next 6-12 months, which I'd stand a pretty good chance of getting and which would represent a major promotion if I did, and so don't want to be lumbered with somewhere I'd have to sell in a falling market.

Edited November 29, 2007 by The Ayatollah Bugheri

[Guest Mr Parry]

29. Jealous of all the above-average earners above!

PT Teacher with 4 happy, healthy children.

Accidentally STR'd as chain collapsed but went ahead with sale in June. Now most happily renting for a year or so to let it all play out.

Have a BTL from about 5 yrs ago, but won't sell as lovely young family living there long term and this is honestly a long term investment for the children.

Enjoying learning so much on this site and feeling like I have 'insider' knowledge!

Good for you, enjoy life. The above, above average earners, if they really asked themselves, are probably not that happy. I just hope for their sakes they are working and saving like mad, so when they burn out they can get out.

Recommend: Never let on your the BTL, not here, not ever! Just friendly advice.

[Moo]

Early 30s, renting, south Surrey, above average earner for area (but not massively so), potential FTB, acceptable deposit saved, no debts.

Bearish Neither who point-blank refuses to be caught out like a number of "friends and family" were last time around. Merv's comment regarding the reality of debt and the variability of house prices pretty much sums me up. Essentially it's an exercise in negative equity avoidance for me.

Still Neither simply because, whilst I'm 100% sure we'll see a serious deflation of house prices at some point in the not-too-distant future, my 'pet indicators' (specifically unemployment, and obvious and prolonged retail sales contraction\stagnation) aren't flashing red yet. Crashes are of many distressed sellers made, and they just aren't out there in the required numbers yet. That's not to say they won't be, far from it. By the end of Summer 08, as long as the banks are still scrambling for cash, I'm sure we'll see them, and the Main Event for house prices can really begin. For now though, the eggs are still eggs.

[Guest DissipatedYouthIsValuable]

35, GP, locum £50-60k. Never owned, travelled pretty widely. In retrospect probably should have stayed in NZ in late 90s. Paying down remaining smallish debt, will get enough together for a deposit and emigrate with g/f to somewhere we can go mountaineering easily, where the fishing is good and can still get an internet connection. Not averse to learning another new language if needs be.

Edited November 29, 2007 by DissipatedYouthIsValuable

[dissident junk]

I'm 31. Part-time employed wordsmith, part-time freelance. Earn around £22K a year. Married. No kids. Rent. Never owned a house. Have saved up £15K so far in three year strategy to save £30K+. Was supposed to be for a deposit for something in 2009, but not sure if we even want to buy now unless we pay cash, regardless of house prices.

[The Ayatollah Buggeri]

Have a BTL from about 5 yrs ago, but won't sell as lovely young family living there long term and this is honestly a long term investment for the children.

Pity the 'lovely young family' will be denied any 'long-term investment for the children' (not to mention security in their home), though.

[Rover]

Aged 40, above average earner for the region.

Sold mid 2006 due to required move, declined to buy due to market.

Effectively STR, sat on 200K+ and waiting..................................

[Guest Mr Parry]

Pity the 'lovely young family' will be denied any 'long-term investment for the children' (not to mention security in their home), though.

See HPC Stalker, told ya'!

Give them a break Ayatollah. They've got one house now. So they're not really the BTL!

[Joey Buttafueco Jr]

Good for you, enjoy life. The above, above average earners, if they really asked themselves, are probably not that happy. I just hope for their sakes they are working and saving like mad, so when they burn out they can get out.

Recommend: Never let on your the BTL, not here, not ever! Just friendly advice.

Not sure why you need to work long hours/burn out/be unhappy to earn above average wage?

[Guest Mr Parry]

Not sure why you need to work long hours/burn out/be unhappy to earn above average wage?

These city boys earn WAY ABOVE average wage. They get bonuses bigger than most people earn in years.

Noel, if you've got any suggestions as to how you earn above average without killing yourself, I'm all ears?

[The Colour]

So it would seem that yes, we are all the same.

We are one

we are people

We pull together

through thick and thin

[bachelor]

I'm 24 and renting in Kent. Student. Not married and never will be - too risky. Working part time to pay for course fees and saving as much as possible, and will not be buying a house any time soon.