How old were you when you got your first mortgage ?

I suppose it depends who owns the property you rent as to how secure you are (or maybe feel you are) growstuff.
If you have a council or Housing Association tenancy you would not be likely to lose it. If you rent from a big estate they also like continuity and want to keep the property as an asset for future generations. They are generally prepared to consider adaptations if ultimately it will not detract from the asset.

My parents sold their home when they retired and moved into a rented cottage where they added on a conservatory. The estate was a large one and gave me ½ the "added value" of the conservatory when they died.

It does work for some people.

We, for example, would never have been able to bring our (5 children) family up in such a beautiful home in an otherwise "expensive" village if we hadn't rented. The rent was definitely worth it for us.

I was early 20s in the 70s and struggled to find anywhere we could afford. We eventually got a mortgage from the LCC (London County council) who lent us more than building societies would - it still had high interest rates. We paid £10,000 for a 2 bed flat on a busy road. Ten years later we sold for £25,000 and paid £36,000 for a 3 bed house.

I was 26, DH 28. We moved from a teacher’s flat in Scotland which cost £2 a week to London where we had to pay £12,250 for a 2 bed maisonette. Interest rates were high and we struggled.

Whiff

Had our first mortgage in 1980 I was 22 my husband to be 23 . Had a £12,500 mortgage . Out first house cost £15,250. But I had saved the difference. But interest rates where high . Not to many years past when it went to 15%. To afford our own house we had to go without holidays etc and save like mad.

Unfortunately some people want it all but don't want to make the sacrifices to achieve their goals.

Unfortunately, I'm back to renting and haven't had a holiday for 18 years. I wonder what sacrifice I should make.

NotSpaghetti

I was 42.
I don't see the problem with renting - if you are regularly moving about it can work - and if you have a good landlord and can live somewhere you love.

We all make sacrifices to achieve our goals whiff - we just have different goals!

The problems with renting include not having security or being able to adapt a property to suit you. The biggest disadvantage is that renters don't end up with a capital asset. We're now in the ridiculous situation that many renters are paying more in rent than they would pay for a mortgage on an equivalent property, but they don't have the deposit for a mortgage (unless they're lucky enough to have a bank of mum and dad).

28, married at 25, but we’d been living/working abroad for those first 3 years. Dh had bought a small flat a few years previously though - sold when we bought the house.

During the year after we bought the house (late 70s) prices really shot up. I don’t think a near neighbour (we still live in the same house) has ever really forgiven us for having bought our bigger one, for quite a bit less than he paid for his smaller one a year later. He had actually asked me what we’d paid - unheard of at the time! - and I was too taken aback to lie or prevaricate.

I feel really sorry for young people now that house prices, relative to incomes, have become so comparatively unaffordable, and that’s taking into account a period of horrendous interest rates. The deposits they now need take so much more saving for, at least for anyone on average incomes.

I was 21 and DH was 22 when we got our first home, a two bedroom cottage. The mortgage was only in DH's name and we acquired it just two weeks before we married. Less than 18 months into our marriage I had a baby and left work which meant we were permanently skint. Mortgage interest, in 1967 was 15%, DH had to take a second job to cover the bills.

I was 42.
I don't see the problem with renting - if you are regularly moving about it can work - and if you have a good landlord and can live somewhere you love.

We all make sacrifices to achieve our goals whiff - we just have different goals!

Had our first mortgage in 1980 I was 22 my husband to be 23 . Had a £12,500 mortgage . Out first house cost £15,250. But I had saved the difference. But interest rates where high . Not to many years past when it went to 15%. To afford our own house we had to go without holidays etc and save like mad.

Unfortunately some people want it all but don't want to make the sacrifices to achieve their goals.

I was 18 and my husband 21. He wasn’t that fond of going to work but went every day for six whole weeks for the payslips necessary for the mortgage!

We paid £4,000 for the terraced house, within a year next door went for over double.

I was 28 husband 34 it was a nice town house with beautiful gardens only six miles from where I grew up but I was homesick. We were there for four years when my son was born and I left work I wanted to be by my parents. We moved to a semi near my family home which is a ten minute walk away through woods. I divorced and remarried and moved to a detached house five mins walk away. My parents are not here anymore but this is home to me I don’t imagine we will move.

27. I was single, so it was based on just my salary. The mortgage was (almost to the penny) 2.75 times my salary.

Even tough starting salaries for teachers have increased since 1982, a multiple of 2.75 times wouldn't buy anything in this part of the country now.

32

31.

34. We had a new council home before that, moved area, and wanted to move back. Only way was to buy. We got 100% mortgage.

Actually forgot - 1st mortgage was me 21, DH 22.
Council mortgage conditional on improvements which turned out to include raising roof - in the middle of a terrace.
Couldn't afford that, and it was silly anyway, so we resold within a year, at a small profit.

Me 28, DH 29, joint mortgage although I had no earnings at the time as SAHM.

Mortgage from local council as no-one else would lend on a dilapidated house with no bathroom.
Improvement grant made possible the total renovation of house.

I was 30 DH 31, it was a 3 bed semi in Earith.

We were both 29 when we bought the house from our MIL, and have been here since. My DH has lived in the house since the age of 3!

Luckily and wisely, all three of our adult children have bought their homes with hopefully manageable mortgages.

I was 29, DH 31, in 1974. We bought a new-build three bedroomed semi close to where I was teaching, for £7,500. Had it until 1993, then bought the new-build house I'm still in now. Quite happy here, lovely neighbours, close to family and friends and buses.

I was 40 and husband was 44. But we had been in RAF MQs for about 15 years beforehand. It was 30 years ago and I am still in the same house, I just changed the husband.

£6000, 1972, Newcastle-u-Lyme. 2.5 bed semi.

SusieB where did you first buy? Our new build three bedroom link detached was half of what you paid for your flat in the same year, 1972. It was on what was considered the biggest private estate in Europe at the time, but we had a nice outlook, and found that as long as we knew the way to the shops, the library and the pub it didn’t seem so big at all.

19

19. Lived with in laws for a year to save the deposit. Worked in London and saved every penny.