Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?
theguardian.com
Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?
1–10 of 103 posts
Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?
#2As 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.
Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?
#3As 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.
Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?
#4As 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.
Relevant: http://i.imgur.com/eIM5o.jpg
Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?
#5As 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 place to call your own".
Now we debate if that last one is actually useful but it's not hard to understand it. At this point it's a cultural force too. Also understandable.
Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?
#6Same situation in Norway. But the tax incentives are so many that if you can you should buy, from an economic perspective. of course there is risks. And if mobility / freedom is weighing more than money, maybe you shouldn't buy?
Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?
#7As 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.
You're not a responsible adult until you recognize debt is a tool. You can use the tool well or poorly but it is just a tool.
Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?
#8An Englishman's home is his castle?
Maybe it's simply that owning a home lets you do more with than renting one. You can add extensions, remodel much of it, potentially demolish the entire thing and rebuild it, that sort of thing.
Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?
#9As 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.
There is a stress in renting too. You never know if your landlord might want to change things resulting in a request for you to move out. eg he wants relatives to have the apartment, etc.
Re: Why are Brits so obsessed with buying their own homes?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Relevant: http://i.imgur.com/eIM5o.jpg
The moral of that cartoon is that we should all become beggars I guess.
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. Another useful addition would be someone with a mortgage that they actually pay off on, their net worth would likely dwarf the net worth of the beggar.