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Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?

theguardian.com

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Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?

#51

Post by moonchrome »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #36
moonchrome wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's a funny way to represent it, but there is one person missing from that cartoon. The person that refuses to go into debt, saves until they have the money to spend on whatever it is they want to buy. There's another person missing from that picture - a person who has debt and has positive net worth. Honestly debt is not a boogeyman, it can be very enabling and given the current economic situation, interest rates…

It looks to me as if several people in that cartoon have debt but a positive net worth.

Yeah true (and the point actually) I was responding to OP who was talking net worth and got confused I just bunched all those people in comic into negative net worth :D

Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?

#53

Post by themartorana »

jamescun wrote: post #48

For me, wanting to buy is not about an investment. I want somewhere secure and stable to live. The "dead money" aspect of rent versus a mortgage is just a bonus. It must seem alien to most in the west the sheer lack of protection renters have in England (property law is devolved); it is based entirely in private contracts, and what law does exist is rarely if ever enforced. Just last week Parliament rejected an amend…

It does seem odd to me (in the US). Renting here is not without risk and slum lords and rising rents, but there is a minimum expectation of consumer protection, much in the same way there is with most transactions.

Either way, if you care to live anywhere near a city, housing prices are astronomical. We make a decent living, my wife and I, but still don't have what it takes to buy a two bedroom apartment in one of the cheaper cities in the country. We've been house poor before, and I'd rather not be again.

I mean I get it - fixed mortgage means in 10-15 years my mortgage may be less than rent of something similar, but that's a long time to be house poor.

Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?

#54

Post by J-dawg »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #34

A: because renting is so expensive. We have no rent caps in this country, so it's actually cheaper to pay off a mortgage than it is to rent. Plus you actually get to keep that money rather than having it line the pockets of a landlord. Plus house prices are increasing at a much higher rate than inflation. So it's a triple win. I had to rent for almost 20/years before I could afford the deposit on a house, but I'm gla…

Although there are plenty of other factors, this is basically the answer. Every time a friend has bought a house (and none of them have done it without being loaned the deposit by their parents), they have reported that the mortgage payments are a few hundred pounds cheaper than the equivalent rent. This will continue to be true as long as interest rates stay near zero.

Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?

#55

Post by SixSigma »

_puk wrote: post #47

The UK has historically been a society where the poor majority worked the land and rented from a few wealthy landowners. [0] This builds a psyche whereby to own land becomes a social status. Bring into that heady mix the likes of Maggie Thatcher's "right to buy" [1] scheme, whereby the lesser class (council house residents) are in a position to buy their homes at a fraction of their apparent worth, and suddenly you n…

You also got rent-for-life arrangements at not unreasonable cost

Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?

#56

Post by dfraser992 »

abritinthebay wrote: post #5

As a Brit in the US I don't feel the pressure is much different here. It's a little resigned and accepting that in a big city you can't afford it, but it's still expected that eventually you'll move to the suburbs and have a home. That's not surprising though as owning a home is generally about two things: financial responsibility and stability (obviously desirable), and actually owning the place that you live. "A pl…

When I was growing up in the US, suburbs were "the thing". I have read (sorry, can't remember where - the Atlantic?) they are becoming less that, due to social changes and increasing population density in the cities. So the projection is that the suburbs in the future will become almost slums as the poor migrate - the housing slump in Florida is one data point.

Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?

#57

Post by bphogan »

outside1234 wrote: post #3
theinternetman wrote: post #2

As a brit born a few years too late for this to be a sensible possibility at all I'm sick and tired of the social pressure from every angle telling me I'm not a real adult until I have a mortgage.

Your response to that should be: "you are not a responsible adult until you are debt free." That is actually one of the secrets to a lower stress longer lasting life IMO.

Responsible adults manage debt. In my opinion it's a sign of immaturity to exclude funding sources available to you to accomplish goals. If the goal is starting a business, borrowing money to do so helps you get to market. If you have employees working for you and you cannot make payroll because profits were poor as you start, borrowing money to make payroll keeps you afloat.

On a personal level, buying a house might be more than you care to take on. But with a mortgage, you can certainly predict what your payments will be for the next 10, 15, or 30 years.

And it can be renegotiated when interest rates drop.

Understanding this is what makes people responsible adults. What makes them irresponsible is buying things on a whim on credit and carrying large credit card balances. That is indeed a great way to ensure a stressful life.

Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?

#58

Post by collyw »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #19
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #16

> My parents rented the family home in Paris for 45 years, and although they did buy a seaside flat and a cottage in the country in the 1970s, their value has only kept pace with inflation American home prices only started rising, in real terms, after WWII [1]. This is driven by people wanting to drive more income to buying land, i.e. treating land as a superior good. Growing government intervention is also a cause.…

> In the long-run, real house prices appreciate at the rate of inflation. Some one should tell this to Canadians. Since the early-mid 2000s, house prices have been rising much quicker than inflation, to the point where people think homes are an 'investment' that will always rise, leading to a massive housing bubble (also propped up by foreign buyers, many of whom are using land to launder money gained through corrupt…

Any coincidence that we have Canadian, Mark Carney as head of the Bank of England?

Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?

#59

Post by rconti »

As an American, this is hilarious to read, given how high British mortgage rates are compared to those in the US, and how home ownership is so often considered to be "the American dream". Also, the brits I know (who do not live in London) aren't so cutthroat about money. Again, I think they'd accuse Americans of being that way.

But this may be true of Londoners.

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