Does anyone remember when mortgage rates were almost 17%!

.....and young people today complain about baby boomers and the value of their houses!. Think how house prices would fall if interest rates went up to over 10% now!

We bought our first house in 1969. Interest rates were just under 7%. By the time we completed interst rates were over 7% and never dropped below that start figure until about 2000, just as we finally paid it off. During that time, as so many have said, rates went up to 15-17% and down again.

Those high rates sent me back to work. I had planned to come back, but I took a job I had avoided for several years because the pay rates were so poor (before the minimum wage), but we needed the money. We had a Christmas when the children's presents were home made or came from charity shops. They considered it one of their best Christmases ever!

I do. No family closer than 150 miles and two young children. DH walked to work instead of getting the bus and I had just over £6 for food per week. I remember a lot of eggs, porridge, carrots and cabbage featuring on the menu.

Same here! We paid £10,500 for a little house in Wales when we married but had to sell when the rate got up to 17.5%

I do agree Gg.

Sadly Juliet most of us had no money left to save, despite DH and I both working 2 jobs. ? My situation now is that I’m happier to have low returns on my savings to keep the mortgage rate low for my children.

I do! We had three children and I was a stay at home mum.

The worst was in 1979, when we moved down to Troon to be nearer my husband's job. I was pregnant with my first child, we had bought a new build and I was very unwell. .

Our house purchase price was £17,00. When we went to complete, it rose to £18,950 and the mortgage went up three times that month to 15%. We could barely afford to eat. We ate an awful lot of eggs!! ?

What a wonderful time that must have been for those with savings!!

Oh yes indeed. It forced me to go back to work earlier than planned, after having our children. Childcare was a nightmare,as we had no family close. Very hard times for us.

I do! We bought our first house in 1990, from memory I think there was one week when interest rates went up twice. Income tax was much higher too and the threshold at which you started paying it was lower. Fortunately I was bought up to be frugal.