House prices and rents post-GE 2015

Axe_meister

Part of the problem is people are not willing to move or believe they have to be in London. The reason salaries appear to be higher in London is that there is a London weighting because London is so expensive.

mellowsun

Personally I want prices to fall, so the gap between the rungs of the ladder are smaller. I don't care if the value of my house falls if it means the next place is also cheaper.

Pointless getting excited about your house rising in value by 100K if the bigger house you want to buy has just gone up by 300K

WezV

Axe_meister said:

Part of the problem is people are not willing to move or believe they have to be in London. The reason salaries appear to be higher in London is that there is a London weighting because London is so expensive.

I agree with that wholeheartedly

FYI -   the train commute from Burton to London Euston is 1 hr 38 mins.... or the more direct route is straight from Tamworth, it takes 1hr 8 mins if you get the 7:15 from Tamworth.

Average house price in Tamworth is £157k,  Burton is £150k with an average rental of £500 pcm

I wouldn't want to do the burton to london commute on a regular basis, but I know people who do, and they get london wages without the london mortgage - the balance works for them in the short term but most don't want to be doing it for long.  Luckily they have good employment prospects after working in the city.

I am much happier earning above the national average with a mortgage which is about half the national average... and I have a 10 minute commute when traffics busy.  

choices... and finding the right balance that works for you

Sambostar

I can't believe there are places where you can rent a house for 500 quid. I need to get out more.

sweepy

Average house pice in Banbury is £225k and rent for a 3 bed house is near £1k a month, thats M40 corridor with 80 mins trim to London, I can't see anyone on average wages or even bottom end London wages affording that and still pay for railcard and a sensible standard of living

digitalscream

Might some numbers help?

Speaking as a council house tenant, we've done the sums based on the state of affairs a couple of months ago - average rent in our town is about £650/month for a two or three bedroom house and an average house price of roughly £250k. We pay £420/month rent, our 3-bed terrace (two gardens + driveway) is valued by the council at £101k and we currently have a Right To Buy discount of about £38k. Most mortgage providers will take the discount as the deposit, so we could get a 15 year mortgage for around the same monthly cost as our rent is right now.

Unfortunately, we're utterly broke after last year's dog-related shenanigans, so we're hoping that the whole Right To Buy thing doesn't disappear in the year it'll take us to get the cash together for conveyancing etc.

Do I feel guilty that I earn quite a lot relative to most council tenants and we haven't handed the house back? It might make me a bad person, but not one bit. I earned significantly less for most of the time we've lived here, and I want to have something of significant value to leave to my daughter when I eventually shuffle off.

Drew_TNBD

Hey Lee, if Bob Crow can get a pass from society, I'm pretty sure you're in the clear