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March 29, 2024, 09:47:37 AM

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Buying a home at 40

Started by wooders1978, February 11, 2019, 07:43:03 PM

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katzenjammer

No problem buying a house at 40, or 50, or 60 as long as you can pay the mortgage and other expenses that's all that matters.  There are calculators out there that will help you with the maths of buy vs rent, like this one, I can't find a UK based one but you get the general idea.  My own rule of thumb is that as long as you plan to stay in the place for at least five years it's worth buying. 

Edit: Maybe this is a better calculator

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: imitationleather on February 12, 2019, 07:24:43 AMAren't about 90% of people of my generation in this position? I've only ended up in it because my mum has shacked up with a bloke who owns a house, I was fully prepared for whatever the future equivalent of the poor house is going to be.
Funny thing, really. My maternal grandparents never owned their own home (rented from the council from 1945 till nan died in 2011, so they probably paid the value of the place about four times over), my parents pretty easily got their own place on being married then a new build eight years later while I only was able to put a deposit down on a one bedroom flat from using money brought from selling the flat my paternal grandfather left behind: his only family was dad, myself and my brother. I wonder if my nephews end up back in the situation of my mam's parents were in?

Buelligan

If you're going to buy, don't do it until after Brexit.  I'm guessing the months/year/eternity after will see some big drops in house prices and job insecurity for many.  If that comes to pass, it'll be better to be a cash buyer in a falling market with a job, if it doesn't, it's only a few months to wait and you won't have lost anything. 

When house prices fall in Britain, they really fall and it would be a complete shitter to have shackled yourself to a 25 year mortgage which will only benefit owners of investment firms like Jacob Cunting Rees Mogg and see you in negative equity for years, that's my advice.

katzenjammer

Well maybe.  But suppose house prices start to drop how long do you wait?  A month?  Six?  A year?  How do you know when the market's hit the bottom? Trying to catch a falling knife isn't generally advised.  Personally if I found a house I liked, could afford the repayments and was pretty sure I wasn't going to want to move in at least five years I'd just do it.

Icehaven

Quote from: Talulah, really! on February 11, 2019, 07:54:13 PM
The last part is key, what are your plans for a place to live when you are 65 if you don't own a property?


Presumably the same place the many, many of us with no inheritances or other home buying options in the pipeline are going to live.

Buelligan

Quote from: katzenjammer on February 12, 2019, 09:38:44 AM
Well maybe.  But suppose house prices start to drop how long do you wait?  A month?  Six?  A year?  How do you know when the market's hit the bottom? Trying to catch a falling knife isn't generally advised.  Personally if I found a house I liked, could afford the repayments and was pretty sure I wasn't going to want to move in at least five years I'd just do it.

I think you're quite right.  All the same though, right now, Britain is on the edge of a cliff and house prices are very very high, I don't think it would be mad to wait a couple of months to see how things are going.  If you're planning to staying in the house for ever (a very long time), it's less of a concern.  If it's fairly possible you might want to move in the fairly short term, as you say, it's a very relevant consideration.

It's true, I think, that when a market, like the house market, starts to fall, cash buyers will push their luck and the concessions vendors make, through lack of confidence, drive the continued fall. 

Outside of an apocalypse, humans will always need homes and want nice ones, so eventually, when vendors cannot concede any greater losses, the market will recover (but that's all up to how big a mortgage someone can get/has, whether they really need to sell etc which is unpredictable stuff).  So, I'd agree, buy when you need/want to buy but caution, don't buy just before a foreseeable crash.

Nowhere Man

May I ask where you live, wooders? I'm assuming not near London if you're looking to buy an actual house.

I've been hate-reading those 'where I live' articles from The Metro, where people are paying upwards of £800 to rent small box rooms in London house shares and it's giving me the urge to kill

wooders1978

Quote from: Nowhere Man on February 12, 2019, 10:21:30 AM
May I ask where you live, wooders? I'm assuming not near London if you're looking to buy an actual house.

I've been hate-reading those 'where I live' articles from The Metro, where people are paying upwards of £800 to rent small box rooms in London house shares and it's giving me the urge to kill
No worries
I'm an hour away from London on the train - near Newbury - the prices are a bit mad as a result but the rent market is more reasonable probably due to an oversupply and lack of demand around me

Thanks to all that have replied!