…well is it? My wife and I are currently in the process of buying our first house. We’ve been lucky enough to have the chance to buy the nice 3 bedroom semi that we’ve been renting four the last four and a half years. We’re buying directly from the landlord for 17k less that he paid for it in 2007 and our mortgage is going to be at least £50 a month cheaper than our current rent is.

Reading all the doom and gloom threads on here about the likelihood of another housing crash/greek default etc is making me pretty nervous though. I only want to live here for another 5 years max before relocating. Is it a good time to be a first time buyer then?

if you have a decent deposit and can get a fixed for 5 year mortgage deal from Nationwide then do it.

We get the keys to ours on Friday 🙂
We have friends who are finance and mortgage advisors and they all said it’s a good time if you can fix repayments for at least 5 years and have a deposit.

EDIT: beaten to it 🙂

Got a fixed discount rate for 2 years….12.5% deposit put down too

i want a house 🙁

who wants to give me a house?

I’m just going through the process now and will hopefully complete in about 3 weeks. Now seems like a better time than 4-5 years ago 😀

Hope so estate agent coming round this pm. Mine just about to go on the market.

I have seen a house that is seemingly perfect, however a shit couple of years self assessment earnings means I doubt I could get a mortgage even though I have around a 65% deposit.

Still going to see it though…

Even IF it loses value over the next 5 years, so will the house you want to relocate to.
IF they lose value, they probably won’t lose as much as what 5 years rent costs you. Good luck!

I wouldn’t bother. Once the Greeks default, the subsequent financial armageddon will mean, pretty soon, we’ll all be reduced to bartering with chickens, and beating each other to death in the street with pieces of splintered human bone

Spend the money on a bunker. Or a tank. I want a tank

Even IF it loses value over the next 5 years, so will the house you want to relocate to.
IF they lose value, they probably won’t lose as much as what 5 years rent costs you. Good luck!

wow, just added up 5 years rent… why the fudge did i not buy 5 years ago! really really want to buy a house now 🙁

I just bought a property & the market is actually q strong, well in my area anyway. I tried some low offers & got nowhere, a few went for premiums to asking prices.

In the long term you will always win, go for it, you obviously like the house & won’t get any nasty surprises like noisy neighbours.

Binners why do i have to barter with the Chickens, i can’t even speak chicken.

I’ll probably buy this year. It sounds from your description that you’re not getting a massive bargain, if that is important to you. If you’re willing to put the hours in house-hunting you could probably do better, financially.
However you clearly know the house inside out and presumably like living in it, which is obv very important.

I’ll probably buy this year. It sounds from your description that you’re not getting a massive bargain, if that is important to you.

How can you know this? My house is worth more now than it was in 2007.

If you are buying a home to live in, then now is as good a time as any.

If you are buying a house to flip on and make a profit, think again*

*Unless that’s your job and you know how to do it. However the days of making 10%+ on the market rising in a year has gone (not that I’m bitter or anything, no).

onehundredthidiot – the chickens are arming themselves as we speak. They’re going to take over the planet

How can you know this? My house is worth more now than it was in 2007.

Who told you that? 😉

Obv it’s speculation on my part based on a few lines – but buying the house you’re currently renting at the landlord’s offer doesn’t sound commensurate with wearing out shoe leather looking at other places, making ten brass-necked low-ball offers on various places etc etc. Certainly he could have done this and the current offer is best value – what’s the situation Tom B?

Whenever you buy a house there will promptly be or have been a better time to buy. Likewise, when you sell a house there will always have been, or will be better times.

Like now. Worst time to sell best to buy. Until i come to buy when it will be a bad time to buy because it’s a sellers market. Even when i’m doing both at the same time.

Binners. That Chicken ain’t up for no bartering.

Who told you that?

The market, and by a good amount too.

If you don’t have one, it’s a good idea.

We had the place valued, and were told that it would be marketed by an estate agent at about 10k more than we’re paying…..6 months ago an identical house 6 doors down sold for exactly what we’re paying for ours (that one need decorating though, ours doesn’t). As for looking at other places, we have looked a little, but nothing was anywhere near as big as what we’ve got for the price…..

I bought this year too, albiet on a tracker deal.

Sounds like a fine deal Tom b.
Sometimes you don’t have to wear out your shoes to get the best result.
It can be about recognising opportunities, rather than tramping the streets for a non-existant better deal.
Better to work smart than work hard. Better still to be in the right place at the right time.
Good luck.

Spend the money on a bunker. Or a tank. I want a tank

There was a tank parked on our business park a while back – belonged to a SW Games company…..

Someone on here once told me buying a house and getting a mortgage was a crazy notion

That was good enoughfor me i bought a house that I ( not the market) though was a bargain on the premise that ill dont want to move every few years – as i have been with rentals

Buyin for security making a house a home rather than making money makes complete sense in almost any market if you have the funds to allow

Binners – you could bury the tank, then you will have both a tank and a bunker.

Good time I’d say, we are exchanging in the next few weeks and have a 5 year fixed. The market is stong here still (wimbledon) the property went on the market on a saturday and had 4 offers by lunch time, sold to us for asking at 3pm, no fooking around!

I’m looking to sell / buy in about 6 months time. Have a helathy deposit and believe that if my house is priced right it should sell, however this proce is unlikely to be right for me. I expect to lose 5% off the asking price but expect this to trickle down to me on my purchase.

Similar houses to mine are selling either very quickly or very slowly on my street. There are also a few houses for rent that go quite quickly.

Binners – there’s a tank parked in the car park of a Sth Manchester pub if you need it.

Someone on here once told me buying a house and getting a mortgage was a crazy notion

And also a person who was telling everyone a few years ago he’d sold his house because the bubble was going to burst and he would rebuy in a few years time when prices were half what they were then. He must have spent an awful lot of money on rent for absolutely no reason.

To the OP – never a ‘perfect’ time to buy but if you’ve the deposit and the funds then go for it. Even in 5 years time when you sell for no profit, remember how much five years worth of rent is that you’ve not spent.

If its got a decent sized garage you could fit a tank, or even a armoured personnel carrier then even better 😛

as a home? yes.

especially if the alternative is the house you like gets sold from underneath you and you have to move…

Just because you are renting does not mean that you are throwing money away. Take into account the following:

Capital (possibility of getting a better return somewhere else)
Paying interest
Paying for maintenance

We rent out our house in the UK while we are in Sweden and make didly squat out of it.

And also a person who was telling everyone a few years ago he’d sold his house because the bubble was going to burst and he would rebuy in a few years time when prices were half what they were then. He must have spent an awful lot of money on rent for absolutely no reason.

-1

The house I’m renting at the moment is costing the landlord the same as what I’m paying to rent it, and I don’t have any buildings insurance, pay for any maintenance and if the boiler/cooker/roof/other develops a fault I just phone the landlord and it’s fixed.

100k house, £500 month rent. Assumed £25k ‘deposit’, 3% mortgage intrest or an ISA and 4% depreciation

Buying
75k*0.03= £2250
100k*0.04 = £4000
Total = £6250

Renting
25k * 0.03 = £750
Rent = £6000
Total = £5250

Depends where in the country you are though and what kind of house, the missus’ flat in Wokingham is still worth what she paid for it, and both neighbours are paying double her mortgage payments in rent, so for flats in Wokingham it’s clearly the reverse situation to a house in North Yorkshire.

My mortgage is also probably less than half what I would be paying to rent the same or similar.

The house I’m renting at the moment is costing the landlord the same as what I’m paying to rent it, and I don’t have any buildings insurance, pay for any maintenance and if the boiler/cooker/roof/other develops a fault I just phone the landlord and it’s fixed.

Yes, but he is the one with the asset, and you are the one paying for it. You are paying for his pension – very generous of you.

http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/media1/economic_insight/halifax_house_price_index_page.asp

This might help you make up your mind!