Heh. I was arguing a few weeks back with someone about this. They were going on about how todays young simply aren't motivated enough and this is why they cannot afford to buy houses. Loads of 'back in my day' was said, and it turned out the persons opinion was that they gave up 'luxuries' and were able to buy their house in 2 years. They paid around a grand for their house but rightly pointed out that wages were much lower back then. I was kind of intrigued so asked a few questions, turned out that before moving into their bought house, she lived with her parents and her soon to be husband lived with his whilst saving. The 'luxuries' they gave up were things such as cinema visits, going to 'dances', going to the pub...basically what they saved on were trips out.

I asked what they earned at the time, and instead of telling me to piss off and mind my own business they told me between her and her partner they made 25 pounds a week. So 1300 a year ish.

So the house cost less than a years wages. Pretty much exactly a years wages for the to be husband, as he made 20 pound a week where she made 5.

So I used average house prices and average household incomes to make this point...£240,325 for average house cost and average household income £23,556. Obviously its clear where I am going with this...10x the average wage to buy a house. And thats the full income amount. Obviously people would still need to eat, and would have to rent a house in the meantime too as its very unusual to be able to live with your parents far past school age. So, average rent is apparently £921 a month. So around 11k per year. Leaving around 12k.

Say people spend 80 quid a week on shopping for 2 (as I had a hard job finding average shopping costs) thats 4k a year.

So now we have 8k. Lets assume that all of that 8k goes on 'treats' that can be cut out easily...rather than being sensible and acknowledging that there are more living costs than rent and food. So these 8k of treats are cut out. It would still take 30 years to buy a house with that.

It was just a ridiculous conversation really, as anyone with an ounce of sense knows that its much harder for todays young when it comes to things such as buying houses. And that so many of them, no matter how hard they work and how hard they save, will never own their own homes. I actually don't know anyone under the age of 40 who owns a house bar one person who inherited it when his parents died. I know only 2 people with mortgages...and LOADS who have been turned down for mortgages. Bar managing to get a mortgage, winning the lottery or inheriting, they have no chance realistically. But its still their fault for being lazy and unwilling to save. Save meaning, not go to the cinema for a year and so on...well its just a bit silly to assume cutting down on cinema trips would mean someone can buy a house :laugh: But so many older people STILL think this way.

Kinda offtopic but your post brought this back :D

You should have just closed it and had done with it. It's what you were trying to do anyway.

Closed what?

A thread where all Corbyn threads were merged together despite being about different issues. It was just a way of closing down any criticism of Corbyn. The hard-left on here are too sensitive and controlling and inevitably get their way. Past caring anymore.

I'm like you Vicky, I just have to do the maths! Not only did they purchase a house for peanuts, they got rich just by owning that house and this is what people new to the property market can't-do anymore. When you try telling some mature homeowners that they get quite irate.

great post brillo - I to do not have any faith in Jeremy. I will east my own words if he gets into power and is a success and does not crumble.

Lucky them, hope they enjoy the fruits of it.

Thank heavens we live up North.
My hairdressers daughter has just bought her own three bedroomed house, only about 2 year old house at that, also just bought her second brand new car, selling the first one of course, while she was on her fortnights holiday her parents decorated the house for her. She is a nurse, having fully qualified last year.
Both kids next door are buying houses up here as well, one with her boyfriend and the son on his own.
We have the pleasure of out son moving back home with us:fist:
Wasted his bloody money on clubbing and debt then couldn't afford his rent:shrug:
Swings and roundabouts, depends where you live, I can not imagine the horrors of trying to buy a house in London or many other places down South to be honest.

First-time buyers used to be able to, and generally did, take their pick of small-ish terraced houses up in one of the Valleys near where i live (usually Maesteg or the Ogmore Valley/Nantymoel ) for a reasonable price. A mate of mine and his girlfriend bought one in decent, ready to move in condition in the early '90s for around £15 grand. You'd be looking at nearer £90 to £100 grand for the same type of property these days, and the further you wanted to buy from a Valley and nearer the main town (Bridgend), the more the prices rise. It's just out of reach for the vast majority of youngsters (and even 'not so youngsters') in the area these days, especially with the generally low wages in this area being what they are.

My parents bought the house I spent my teens in in 1996 for 70k, divorced and sold it in 2004 for 120k (split the money between them and both blew the lot, sigh), and it's now valued at well over 200k.

That was a detached house with three large double bedrooms, but that's in a small village in Scotland. House prices have absolutely soared in the last two decades, anyone who bought their first home pre-1995ish has absolutely no idea what getting on the housing ladder looks like these days.

Around here its not quite so bad for singles or young couples - you can grab a nice enough flat for around the 50 - 60k range - but nothing suitable for a family. If you want a house, even a two-bed semi detached or terraced, you're into the 100k+ bracket. For what I would call a realistically sized family home (3 bed semi detached house) you're pretty much out of luck if you can't stretch to £150k.

£150k isn't out of reach for most people surely. If you have working couples, with or or without children, that should be doable over a 25 year period which is the average for a mortgage.

My son has just bought a 5-bedroomed house and his wife is currently a stay at home mum with young children. He didn't go to uni but trained in communications, works hard, worked his way up, spent wisely and managed his credit well and now has a well paid job in London. He doesn't live in London but commutes. Neither was he born into priviledge, he just applied himself and worked hard.

Ah, but has anything they have reported been proven to be so wrong as to be seen by the regulatory body as intentionally duplicitous?.... No.

Find me something...anything, which suggests they have.

Pretty sure it has or twisted and slanted it out of all proportion.

The average house price in Leeds is 195k so god knows what it is anywhere near the capital, how much is the commute out of interest? You of course have to knock that straight off his annual salary.

The lack of affordable childcare is causing his wife to be trapped in a cell of her own choosing? That's a sad tale, I feel for her.

So nothing then? Thought not.

The commute is largely covered by the company. Often he drives. But again the perks of working hard enough to get in with a good company.

So on average how long does it take for him to get to and from work? Then add the number of hours to his working week.

A couple with two people on full time just-over-min-wage will only get a mortgage for roughly £90k. To secure a 150k mortgage you need a pre-tax income of £47000 and repayments would be over £1000 a month.

Its not "out of reach" but I wasn't saying that it's out of reach, I was pointing out that it's a very, very different financial scenario than it was for people who are now 50+. Property prices increased dramatically and suddenly. And to say that it's no different for young people now than it was in the past is a straight up lie.

http://oi65.tinypic.com/2cofl3l.jpg

Anywhere between about 3-5 hours/day. As I said he works hard , but that has paid off financially for him and his family.

so approx 20hr pw are unpaid excepting subsidised travel expenses? ( assuming he only works 9-5 mon-fri)

He works all sorts of hours. But the point being nothing was given to him on a plate he had to work for it, something we should all expect to do. Unfortunately I don't think enough people think ahead and just live for the moment, which causes problems later.

All Corbyn threads by the same person, and not even all were merged. There are still many that are left as single threads. Opinion pieces, really minor news stories, and threads that were basically the same subject, were merged.

And I did warn about this ages ago but it continued :shrug: I assure you if someone was making that many threads about May, starting new threads for random opinion pieces and that, the same would be done. Or even if the threads were positive, about either Corbyn or May...someone posting endless threads about them would also be merged.

And I don't see how a lot of your Corbyn threads being merged...has anything to do with the post you quoted to ask that? ( http://www.thisisbigbrother.com/foru...78#post9632878 )

Unless I am missing something here

It seemed to me that putting all such threads in one long thread made it harder to find posts and therefore to read and respond. It did indeed lead to the end of many topics and felt like a pretty effective way of closing down certain subjects.

It also felt that your warnings came about as a result of the and groans of a handful of Corbyn supporters who didn't handle such criticism well. I can remember a lot of anti-May threads, but no-one merged those, effectively closing them down. Seemed a bit, well 'biased'.

OK fair enough, I guess we will have to agree to disagree in that case. I fail to see how it could be biased when the same would happen if someone made thread upon thread of positive Corbyn stuff that they got from opinion pieces, or that had no actual new news in them :shrug:

If I have somehow missed someone spamming negative May threads or something, please report...as I said when merging these ones. But I am fairly sure that there is not someone making multiple negative May threads or multiple positive Corbyn, or multiple anti-Brexit on a weekly basis... as I don't see how I could miss that.

You have to be really careful here because what you're saying could be seen as very offensive to parents whose kids have just grown up, got a job but not managed to progress into an area of making a lot of money.

I'm sure you are proud of your son and so you should be. I'm very proud of our eldest son and I hope the same success to our other children, one of whom started uni last week and is now suffering the effects of thresher week!

But working hard is working hard. We live in a world where we need menial workers, we need skilled workers and we need high-flying academics. None of those people hold less value than the other. We are all the cogs that make the big wheel turn. All workers deserve to be able to afford the simple necessities of life. Some people are happy not to progress beyond what they love doing because they don't want or need the extra pressure; some workers are good with their hands, others with their brains. Lack of progression doesn't mean they don't work hard. Progression isn't a must and for many people its an impossibility.

The son who has just started uni is taking a maths degree. Right now he's not sure what he's going to do with that degree. All he knows is, maths is something he enjoys. Perhaps he will be a future economist or a professor or maybe he will just be a school teacher earning very little money for his efforts. His chosen profession doesn't matter so long as he's happy but my question is... can he be happy working hard for a poor salary... will it even be possible for him to continue living in London? and should I, as his mother, be less proud of him if he's not financially successful?

Would it of mattered to you if your son hadn't been successful? If he'd had learning difficulties at school but still managed to get a menial job? Would you be worried about his future in a metropolis of unaffordability?

Lets not just think about our own because that traps our mindset. Think outside the box and try looking at the bigger picture.