OK boomer - House prices have doubled as a proportion of salary since 1970

@saranoor You say "could" get a 100% mortgage on a £375,000 house but one can't get that because affordability rules mean the banks will not lend such high multiples of income.
 
@cinamon From my experience affordability is done based on monthly expenditure. Take the 1979 model

1979
Mortgage - £297
Average wage - £500
Income percentage- 59%

2019
Mortgage- £1400
Average - £3000
Income percentage- 45%

Which means that even based on affordability calculated as monthly expenditures, with the interest rates at the respective rates (17% & 1.64%) it means that houses were actually less affordable then
 
@saranoor Which is why it doesn't tell the whole story. The reason the older generation is rich is that when they were in debt they had high inflation and when the had assets they had low interest. They lucked out. It may have been rougher for them to buy at outset, but 5 years in their debt had worded in real terms and they were much richer. It's not a contradiction to say it was less affordable for them to by initially, but much more affordable than now overall.
 
@michael25martin Agreed but in the same way for people now, it’s much harder to get on the ladder with a deposit etc, but once on you are paying much more capital off much sooner so the debt is decreasing much quick
 
@saranoor That's fair, although I'm still surprised it's 36k, the ons like has it at 30k, (I'd looked at a lower figure earlier)

"Median weekly earnings for full-time employees reached £585 in April 2019, an increase of 2.9% since April 2018."
 
@barbarajean63 I guess at 43 I'm considered a Boomer by millenials even though I'm Gen X. We barely got on the bottom rung in the South East, and only because of the 2008 crash and being ready with deposit having waited 5 long years to buy. Dec 09 we finally got somewhere £169k, 6.4% rate nearly £900 a month. Rice and beans, lots of DIY as we couldn't afford hiring people. Next year we got pregnant so down to one £24k income. We're only now really on a decent rate, and trying to pay down the mortgage. Wages haven't changed hugely but we're OK. Bloody hard work to get this place, and we are scared witless to upgrade, given current climate. God knows how anyone gets on now unless they're earning super well or have been saving properly for a deposit . I will say though in my office plenty of millenials who I think have simply given up on even trying, given the Asos, Boots orders, weekends away and holidays etc. Plenty of them still living at home! I don't blame them but also can't see how they will move ahead.
 
@faith826
I guess at 43 I'm considered a Boomer.

You are definitely Generation X, however the "OK Boomer" is increasingly being used as a generic term, rather than specifically for Boomers...

Congrats on being part of the group with the highest male suicide rate. Yay... Go us...
 

Similar threads

Back
Top