House Price's

[SPUGGIE J]

On my own and the average national wage for Scotland is according to the news on Sat evening £12,576 which was a shock to the system. Though it is brought down because of the amount of part time work in this neck of the woods.

[jedimaster]

although house prices have rocketed around here recently they are still nowhere near as high as where i was living
which was the whole reason i moved back to the area
if i was to buy my rented council house in the rough end of bath (which covered about 80% of the city)
i would have been looking at nearly £200,000 for a 2 up 2 down
whereas my three bed terrace cost just under £53,000 2 years ago and it's not in that bad an area

[***Mr D***]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

It's swings and roundabouts. With renting you don't have to pay for repairs and if you have a decent landlord who actually does the repairs it's OK but you'll always be paying rent whereas with a mortgage there is a light at the end of the tunnel even if it's a dark narrow tunnel whilst you're still paying. One day there'll be an end to it with the mortgage paid off.

I totally agree with 'the light at the end of the tunnal' but for me to obtain a mortgage of £100.000, that light wouldnt be for 35 years, Id be 65 then and only probably 15 years of retirement.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by entwisi

Spug, National av wage is ~£25K/pa so you can conservatively afford £100K if there is 2 of you

This is the oft quoted figure, that takes into account the soaring salaries of city fat cats and their million pound bonuses etc.

I've been trying to find out the average wage in Hyndburn. From the jobs I've seen advertised they aren't anywhere near as much twenty five grand a year. Many pay the minimum wage, or are heavily commission weighted salaries, which doesn't really help you raise a hundred grand mortgage.

Happily, through shrewdish moves and some luck, I was mortgage free eleven years after buying my first property. It still doesn't stop me feeling sorry for people trying to get onto the property ladder, or struggling with massive mortgages.

[entwisi]

Even with the fat cat salaries, it doesn't skew it that much.

I think you'll find that a lot of people who live in Hyndburn work outside it. I see a lot of people driving into Manchester every day and some idiots even drive as far as Knutsford I'm sure Baxenden must be a ghost town during the day!

Hyndburn was always a manufacturing town which is historically low paid, with that now gone abroad it seems to be service industry related that is holding it up. Again one of the lowest salaried industries.


My advice to people is to be prepared to travel and to be ambitious. There are so many people I meet who will happily(???) plod on through life doing the same job etc. If you want better pay you have to go after it. This may mean working a distance away, it may even mean looking long and hard at what skills you have and deciding to make a significant change.

Up to now I've sold TVs and HiFis, worked the pub restaurant industry, done Call Centre work before arriving where I am currently in IT. If IT fell through I'm sure I'd find something else, plumbing/sparky would probably be my next port of call but TBH I would be happy to do anything in teh short term till I set out my new plan for world domination.(Actualy I fancy being the bloke who hires out sunbeds on a nice beach somewhere )

Not everyone can/wants to make these sort of changes I know but if IT is your choice to stay in that job then you can't then complain that wages in Accy are rubbish.

[jackyalex]

[quote=entwisi;354212]Spug, National av wage is ~£25K/pa so you can conservatively afford £100K if there is 2 of you(Not that I would but thats using teh multiplier that has been in use for over 20 years)




wow where did that figure come from,i know alot of people and 25k for a fam of 5 isnt even right never mind 2 adults earning 25k each,most of the people i know are earning on avr 17kpa and thats to run a fam of 5 thses are just some of the peeps that are stuck for a chance to get a foot hold on the property ladder,we both work but still cant afford to buy

[Ianto.W.]

When you consider people pay £200-£250,000 for a 2 room flat in Greater London, £100,000 for a terraced house in Accrington constitutes darned good value for money.

[entwisi]

Originally Posted by jackyalex

wow where did that figure come from,i know alot of people and 25k for a fam of 5 isnt even right never mind 2 adults earning 25k each,most of the people i know are earning on avr 17kpa and thats to run a fam of 5 thses are just some of the peeps that are stuck for a chance to get a foot hold on the property ladder,we both work but still cant afford to buy

I know what you are saying, when I worked in the area I earned less than £12K(although it was 10 years ago). Even looking for work in the papers you struggle to see much over £17K. However there are a LOT of people who earn £25 and above depending on the industry you are in. IT seems to pay particularly well especially if you have a sought after skillset. I guess its a case of find something you are good at that pays well and focus on getting there.

It must be soul destroying to be trying to get on the property ladder with teh wages round accy. Having said that, there are options that people don't consider.

e.g. I was thinking laterally about how someone who can't earn enough to buy a decent house in Accy could get on the property ladder or at the very least live for a lot less. One idea I came up with was as follows

NB, THE FOLLOWING COULD BE SEEN AS INVESTMENT ADVICE, ONLY CONSIDER THIS IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, I STRONGLY ADVISE TALKING THROUGH WITH A FINANCIAL ADVISOR WITH REGARD TO YOUR VIEW OF RISK AND FINANCIAL SITUATION!!! I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY RESULTING PROBLEMS

OK, so you can't afford to buy in Accy but the rental market is relatively good value i.e. you can rent a nice house in a decent area for ~£500 a month. Comapred with London this is absolute peanuts. So an alternative, If you could 'earn' £500/month from somewhere you would effectively be living rent free. Considering that a mortgage on a £50K house would be in the region of £325. So looking to invest this money to return £500/month. It seems impossible but is it?

There is a strong market in property overseas at the moment. As we are all aware, holiday homes in Bulgaria/Romania/Egypt etc are quite cheap, some (Egypt for example) offer all year round rental prospects, I very nearly bought a place in Sharm el Shiek last year, it was a 2 bed apartment, sea view, next to a golf course and 1 mile from major diving centre, could easily sleep 6 and was for sale at ~£40K. Rental in the area was running at ~£250-£400/week to the golfer/diving enthusiasts. At this rate the rental would pay the mortgage(working on 3/4 weeks rental = £750-1200/month) and provide a decent income that would offset the majority of the rental on your house in Accy. At the same time you are 'on the ladder' and could gain from any increase in proerty value in Egypt. You only have to look at how prices have gone haywire in Spain to see that this could be a very nice little earner.

yes there are risks, just as I was thinking about it a bomb went off there that shook confidence in the area a bit, it seems to have recovered quite well now. There are obviously other charges (Council tax equiv in Egypt, local taxation etc hence SEE AN IFA or LAWYER) so you really need to do a proper business plan on something like this to make sure you understand teh risks and what would happen if you couldn't keep up payments or if rental dropped off.

So theres one lateral thinking solution, don't buy here, buy elsewhere!

[jackyalex]

i am elsewhere i dont live in accy,i used to but i prefer the sticks and quietlife,i dont think i could risk buying in another country as there can be too many problems and its too much hastle,we dont go abroad for holidays we prefer the uk,so buying abroad is a def nono,as for buying where i live a 2 bed terrace is on avr 130k and thats just a plane 2 bed terrace well we need a 3 bed as we have both girl and boys,i cant see us ever being able to afford a house,it seems to me that only the high earners and people who already own their homes are the ones who can buy the rest of us just have to sit back and hope,unless someone out their is going to help,

[lancsdave]

House prices forecast to go up 15% in 2007

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6196695.stm

[jackyalex]

oh great,but somethings gotta give

[flashman]

Having lived in Canada for the past 30+ years I can never undersand the UK housing market.

I sold the family home in 1968 and got 600 pounds for it, It is now worth 70K+. It was a leasehold 2 up 2 down mid terraced house with outside toilet and no bathroom and I'm sure that improvements have been made to it but 70K or more is still a lot.

In comparison I have a 5 bedroom, 2 bathroom detached house in Canada with an attached Granny Flat, double garage with loft, 2 double driveways and nice front and rear lawn.

THere's big difference

[garinda]

Don't forget house prices can and have gone down in the past. When I bought my first flat in London lots of people were in negative equity, paying mortgages on flats that were valued less than the actual property.

Also interests rates can change. People that are tempted to have mortgages many times higher than their salary must keep in mind that this may alter in the next twenty five years. In the early nineties interest rates were at a crippling 15%, and many people subsequently lost their homes.

[entwisi]

IIRC they only hit 15% for 1 day then there was a crash on the FTSE.

Negative equity is only a 'problem' for those who want to sell their house. It really doesn't matter that you owe more than its worth as long as you can afford the payments and like where you live. Most people who get loans to buy a car are in 'negative equity' on it for the vast majority of the term of the loan, it doesn't matter for that period and then people tend to do exactly the same again.

Flashman, you don't mention how much your new pad is worth or cost so its not a valid comparison.

[WillowTheWhisp]

We almost considered buying a property in Bulgaria. I wouldn't mind Tunisia but the method there seems to be to to buy a plot of land and then build in stages. I don't think I could cope with that.

There is still plenty of property available in Accy for under £100,000 and if you are prepared to go for something that needs work doing on it you can get a 2 bedroomed terrace for less than half that so it's not quite as desperate as it looks yet.

Some recent examples:
• 21, Willows Lane - Sold for £58,000
• 42, Lydia Street - Sold for £55,000
• 90, Charter Street - Sold for £53,500
• 7, Reeth Way - Sold for £41,600
• 24, Fern Gore Avenue - Sold for £40,000
• 50, Ormerod Street - Sold for £20,000

That last one must have bee a bit grim!!!