I'm actively house hunting and have been viewing (and putting in offers) on 3 bed semis. In my neck of the woods nice ones (if you want crazy facilities like a parking space or a garden) are around £600,000 possibly a lot more.
Mortgage Rate Rises
- Thread starter glenimp617
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I'm actively house hunting and have been viewing (and putting in offers) on 3 bed semis. In my neck of the woods nice ones (if you want crazy facilities like a parking space or a garden) are around £600,000 possibly a lot more.
I think the point people keep trying to get across to you is that affordability is much worse now. Houses cost a much higher multiple of salary and as rents and the general cost of living are also high, it's very difficult to save a sizable deposit. People in previous generations who weren't on large salaries were able to buy houses that are currently completely unaffordable to someone doing a job earning a comparative wage today.
I do get that but I'm trying to show that there's a difference in the way the market is now compared to when I bought my first house. I know the affordability is the issue with most people but the housing market is still going, so someone can afford those prices all be it on a longer mortgage. For some from the early 80's they could afford to buy easily for others they had to struggle. As I said, taking on a mortgage is the biggest debt you will ever take on so you had better be aware of the realities of it.
Owning has really only been open to lower paid people since the middle of the last century. Before that almost all lower paid workers rented, society hasn't moved on very much when we seem to be going backwards to that.
We do need more council and private housing but also the markets in buying and renting need serious regulatory action.
I'm sorry to say in this world owning your own property isn't a right, it is never going to be easy. I do understand the problems and have seen it unfold over the last 44yrs of paying a mortgage now I have 2 grandchildren who may never get on the housing ladder without considerable help.
Is the price reflecting where you are in the country? Here the prices are around £400,000 give or take depending on all the normal factors.
We both were qualifying on average. And a two to three bed semi do not cost half a million on average. Mine in a nice Cheshire town with gardens front and back cost me £290k two and a half years ago and that coincidentally is about the average UK house price today.
There is a significant geographical, condition and location spread, desirable or not
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Soldato
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Our current 5 year deal expires in the New Year and there's absolutely no chance we're getting 1.49% again 
Think we're going to wait it out a few months (until Oct/Nov) and hope the BoE base rate drops a little more. Either way it's going to be an extra £400-500 per month on interest. Horrible to think about!
I don't think we'll be going for a 5 year fix again this time, probably a 2 year and hope things drop a little bit more by 2028.
Think we're going to wait it out a few months (until Oct/Nov) and hope the BoE base rate drops a little more. Either way it's going to be an extra £400-500 per month on interest. Horrible to think about!I don't think we'll be going for a 5 year fix again this time, probably a 2 year and hope things drop a little bit more by 2028.
When you took out the lower rate mortgage did you take into consideration that the rates could go higher and plan for that?Our current 5 year deal expires in the New Year and there's absolutely no chance we're getting 1.49% again
I don't think we'll be going for a 5 year fix again this time, probably a 2 year and hope things drop a little bit more by 2028.
A five year fix often means that after five years the next mortgage is more affordable because you are earning more. Mortgages don't rise with inflation, only bank rate.
A two year fix could mean little has changed.
Where I am in the country (Bristol) and where I currently live in the city. In my immediate area a Victorian terrace with no parking and a postage stamp for a garden will set you back over £500,000. Can be a lot more depending on how much it's been renovated. The 3 bed semis I have been viewing are more like £600,000 and seem to get snapped up quickly. Obviously it's possible to find cheaper houses if you go further out and look at smaller properties in a less desirable area. Personally I'm not looking for an ex council house in a neighborhood that occasionally makes the national news for gang violence.
Soldato
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Yep it sucks donkey balls. We had overpaid a decent amount, and after our first 5 years were up, we renewed back to basically the exact same monthly payments as when we first took the place. All sounds great in that £1450 per month in 2018, and then renew to £1450 per month in 2023 means it's "more affordable" as wages etc have gone up. However then we we paying £750 interest, £750 mortgage, now it's more like £1100 interest, £400 mortgage.
We renew again next year, I think for 2 years, and then going forward it should mean our payments are at a healthy amount for us to cover. But the last 2 years have seen so little paid off of the actual mortgage, and the next 2 years won't be much better without over paying
Just had a quick look for a Vicotian terraced here and it ranges from £175,000 upto £300,000. That is in Kettering, Northamptonshire a pretty average town but prices are hyped up by being a commuter stop for London.
Outside of the London South East bubble, Bristol seems to have become one of the UK's most expensive cities.
Yes, any up an coming area has not only a premium price but an added extra on top aswell.
As someone on the other side of the bridge, prices in Bristol, Newport and Cardiff have mooned over the past 5 years.
What you could get for 600k today and 2 years ago is now drastically different as those 600k houses from just 2 years ago are now on the market for 700k+. It's daft. They are bloody selling though!!
In the past I've known people move "over the bridge" for cheaper houses and then commute back to Bristol for work. Not sure how the numbers stack up these days though and too much time spent driving/stuck in traffic for me.
Soldato
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Of course. It's not unmanageable, just irritating to be paying several thousand pounds more each year to the lender.
It's not whether it's more or less affordable (to me), it's that we will be paying a substantially higher rate, on a lower amount, to keep living in the same house with higher monthly payments. And it won't become more affordable as I've already peaked with my contracting rates a while ago
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This definitely started happening once the bridge toll was removed. House prices in Newport increased by 30% after that.
The Brynglas tunnels are still a nightmare when the traffic builds. It's absolutely not worth the commute, I agree.
I think all older.people accept that prices are a lot more than when they bought their houses in the 80s/90s. The issue is that the same older people cannot seem to acknowledge the affordability aspect wrt wages Vs house prices i.e:
80s - average house price was 4x average salary
2022 - average house price is 8x average salary
Source
Instead, the response that is given by the older folks is about the high interest rates of the 80s or the recession of the 90s, which is all well and good, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the average house price Vs average wage disparity argument.
It's almost as if they can't just go "yeah I get its a nightmare to actually buy a house today, I feel.for the younger folks trying to do it" as they are too busy spouting how "we had it tough with 15% interest rates so I don't know what the kids these days have got to moan about"
Newsflash - it ain't a competition as to who had it tougher.
Even in the eighties I could never have afforded a house in Hampshire. My father did moving to Petersfield in 1965 from working abroad. I moved to St. Helens in '74 then Leigh in Lancashire eventually buying a terraced house in 1982.