Should house prices be dropped drastically - to help the young ?

[funkymiss]

 

3. Most people I know who want to own a house find, or have found, a way to do so (parents, working their arses off, buying with a mate, taking in lodgers, etc etc). So we're not a generation priced out by any means.

 

Most people I know don't have parents who could buy them a house, I definitely don't. I do work my arse off but still can't see myself having the money for a deposit any time soon. A lady I work with bought her house in our area about 25 years ago paying the measly sum of £24k, to buy it now would cost around 170k. She was commenting how much things have changed for young people.

 

But you are right, I have a roof over my head so consider myself lucky. It's just a shame renting/landlords aren't better in this country or I wouldn't mind. Living in someone else's house starts to get a bit annoying after 6 years!

[epiphany]

apelike, I think when people talk about owning their own home before the mortgage is paid off it's more about the feeling of the home being yours to use and abuse. It is de facto ownership.

[millhouses24]

Coming from London to the North, what's actually surprised me as well is how there is that expectation that single people should live on their own.

 

Not a criticism, just an observation In London I've always shared when I've been single and even living with a chap on a fairly good joint income we had lodgers for some time. £400 per month rent on a flat to myself would seem a bit much, even though (touch wood ) I'm on Ok money. Living on my own won't be an option until I get myself a nice contract this summer. I don't think I'm entitled to subsidised housing costs - I'll just get what I can afford.

[millhouses24]

Most people I know don't have parents who could buy them a house, I definitely don't. I do work my arse off but still can't see myself having the money for a deposit any time soon. A lady I work with bought her house in our area about 25 years ago paying the measly sum of £24k, to buy it now would cost around 170k. She was commenting how much things have changed for young people.

 

But you are right, I have a roof over my head so consider myself lucky. It's just a shame renting/landlords aren't better in this country or I wouldn't mind. Living in someone else's house starts to get a bit annoying after 6 years!

 

Where you're going wrong is renting a "nice" flat I live in a shared dive that looks like a low class brothel (although my flatmates and I don't look that good in fishnets) so I can and do fiddle with things without shame. I would paint my walls but I can't be arsed. I absolutely love it. I suspect my eighty quid deposit is long lost but I don't mind.

 

Some of the "older" generation seem to have had it easy in terms of housing, but then we have youth and years ahead of us and loads of opportunities. I know some (fairly) well-off older people and quite frankly I wouldn't trade my poverty stricken, miserable little life for theirs whatever size their houses are. After all, I have hips that don't need replacing and I can jump up and down and my bits stay in the right places and I'm not married to some miserable old man so stuff their massive amounts of equity.

[anarchist]

So what happened to that flagship low cost eco housing development on Norton Aerodrome?

 

Oh I remember it died about 10 minutes after the headlines.

[taxman]

It bugs me that economic and political commentators will bemoan house prices falling as if its the end of the world. In every other sphere of life High Prices = Bad yet in the housing market they seem to want ever increasing prices to encourage people with nice houses to sell at a profit and move to a nicer, bigger house, then sell for more profit and move to an even bigger house and so on.

 

Houses have become investments rather than places to live.

 

Low cost housing is never going to be built in large numbers. Who is going to build them? Councils? It certainly won't be people like Barratts and Wimpy. Why would they build low cost social housing when they can make vast amounts building 5 bedroom mansions on Greenbelt?

[Cyclone]

I seriously worry for the young people of the future, house prices are so high and yet despite putting in a 40 hour working week, many young people will never be able to save up enough of a deposit to put down on a home.

 

Someone on £7 per hour, for 40 hours will get £280 per week, less tax will come to around £240 per week, for the month this would give a net of £960.

 

With rents for anywhere reasonable being around £400 minimum per month, you aren't left with an awful lot for much else. If you pay £600 per month, you can at least be in a decentish area.

 

How on earth will young people of the future ever get on the housing ladder? this could potentially become a very serious problem in 10 or 20 years further down the line

 

How do you suggest dropping the prices, a change in the law?

That's hardly going to be fair on the first time buyer that scraped together enough to buy something yesterday and now finds that the government just mandated that all house values be halved.

 

It basically makes no sense, the only way the government can affect house prices are through taxation changes (stamp duty) and building them themselves (or making it easier for companies to build them).

[Cyclone]

It isn't going to happen whilst this government announces house building targets to grab headlines but simply fails to act on them.

 

It is a shortage of housing that is driving up prices largely fueled by foreigners buying into the housing stock.

Source please.

 

Despite demand increasing house building fell to its lowest level for 80 years in 2001 and that has been the story more or less since.

 

Housing need was identified at between 220,000 and 230,000 new homes per year. Actual figures achieved around 165,000.

You'd think that if there were such a mismatch between supply and demand that builders would be throwing them up as fast as they could mix the mortar...

[Guest]

I seriously worry for the young people of the future, house prices are so high and yet despite putting in a 40 hour working week, many young people will never be able to save up enough of a deposit to put down on a home.

 

Someone on £7 per hour, for 40 hours will get £280 per week, less tax will come to around £240 per week, for the month this would give a net of £960.

 

With rents for anywhere reasonable being around £400 minimum per month, you aren't left with an awful lot for much else. If you pay £600 per month, you can at least be in a decentish area.

 

How on earth will young people of the future ever get on the housing ladder? this could potentially become a very serious problem in 10 or 20 years further down the line

 

Why do people *have* to get on the housing ladder? Why are people obsessed with owning property in this country?

 

You can't just drop housing prices, it's a market like any other, prices go up and down.

 

Owning a house is a luxury as far as I'm concerned.

[Swan_Vesta]

I seriously worry for the young people of the future, house prices are so high and yet despite putting in a 40 hour working week, many young people will never be able to save up enough of a deposit to put down on a home.

 

Someone on £7 per hour, for 40 hours will get £280 per week, less tax will come to around £240 per week, for the month this would give a net of £960.

 

With rents for anywhere reasonable being around £400 minimum per month, you aren't left with an awful lot for much else. If you pay £600 per month, you can at least be in a decentish area.

 

How on earth will young people of the future ever get on the housing ladder? this could potentially become a very serious problem in 10 or 20 years further down the line

 

Yeah, Absolutely ......If you've been smoking crack!

 

Why should I lose money on my gaff because people can't afford to buy? What's right for me ain't right for them and vice versa. Crazy idea, just like hitting frogs with hammers.