January 31, 2007
The world has gone mad
Well it has here in Northern Ireland anyway. We have been in our house for about 8 years now, it is the first house we have ever bought and we never intended to stay in it forever. We thought we would move on at some point, I have always had this fear of being stuck in one place forever, I don't know why, but I just don't know how people can stay in the same house for 20 years! But the way things are going unless we move far away we can forget moving on.
The property market here has gone completely crazy. When I say crazy I mean totally CRAZY! I just can't emphasize enough. We got our house valued this morning just to see how much money we would have to play with if we saw something else we fancied. Just to give you an idea, we live in a pretty standard 3 bedroom semi-detached house, with a very very small garden. Its in a pretty good area and is close to a lot of schools and just a 15 minute drive from the centre of town. But I am absolutely sickened at the estimate. The estate agent said he would put our house on for £275,000 and we would probably even get £300,000+ for it!!!!!!!! Now some people might think this is great news for us equity wise but really it isn't unless we sell up and move away or something. It also means that we would be looking to pay up to £400,000 if we wanted to get somewhere a little bigger. Its just crazy. Its not right at all that house prices should be like this. It only seems to be here that they have had such a massive rise and it still looks set to continue.
Anyone looking to buy a house for the first time might as well forget unless they have a top salary. Banks are now letting people have 5 times there salary to try and afford somewhere, which is totally wrong and leaves people with property they just can't afford.
I am bewildered by it all and if I don't end this rant now I could go on forever.
Posted by Maxine at 04:06 PM
| Comments (6)
Comments
Does it help at all to know that you've described the housing market (at least in Canada) to a tee? We're suffering exactly the same way.... don't let me start with the tax system here :(
A huge bonus is at least you own a house, right?
We're still renters, in our mid to late 30's, and sometimes I think we'll never own our own home to raise our 4 kids in. That makes me sad.
Posted by: Krista | January 31, 2007 06:20 PM
Prices have rocketed, haven't they? I know our house has doubled in price in 4 years, which sounds good except selling it and trying to buy somewhere else would be impossible. I can sympathise with your plight. Hang on in there and keep saving, prices will become more normal eventually.
Posted by: Angel Jem | January 31, 2007 08:15 PM
Come and live in Scotland!!! it's going up but it's nowhere near that level yet you could still get a (rather small) castle for your money!! it'd be fab you could come to knitting group with me and everything!!!
Posted by: Sal | January 31, 2007 08:41 PM
I completely understand your rant. We are in a similar position - we bought our flat 8 years ago for just over £200,000 now we could get close to £500,000. Which, yes, would be wonderful if we didn't have to buy somewhere else to live. So for the long forseeable future we will be staying in our flat - that's unless my numbers come up on Saturday.
Posted by: caroline | January 31, 2007 09:05 PM
I saw a TV ad for a 5x salary mortgage tonight. It's irresponsible. We borrowed 2.5x when we bought our first house and it was really hard to make those payments at first. If we owed 5x I would be a nervous wreck.
No wonder people stay put and build extensions.
Posted by: Ali | January 31, 2007 10:32 PM
Hi, I just discovered your blog from Wisecraft. I totally agree with you about house prices. I live in London and the idea of ever buying a place is impossible. My boyfriend and I are on a very good joint salary but even if we borrowed 5 times that salary(which I wouldn't want to do) we could barely afford a tiny studio flat in the area we live. It's very depressing and totally crazy.
Posted by: Nonnie | February 1, 2007 09:26 AM
