How old were you when you got your first mortgage ?

We bought our first house in 1990 for £72500 when I was 25 and DH 27, our combined salaries were £30k and we had a 90% mortgage. The house was a 2 bedroomed semi in the south east , we sold it 6 years later for the same price after the housing crash. I checked online and the same house sold for £351,000 in 2017!
My DD and DS have just bought a 2 bed flat together for £264000.

Me and fiancé bought a semi in Canvey Island around 1971. I think it was about £3,000. I had a secure job in the City of London and he worked as a waiter but somehow we obtained a mortgage. We divorced in 1976 and I bought a bungalow on Canvey Island. Halifax Building Society told me I was the first single woman to be granted a mortgage. I still worked in the City. Unfortunately it was all too much on a secretary’s wage and I sold up and moved back in with mum. Long time ago,

At age 20 we bought a quarter acre block of land with our savings Aus$1000 and built a low set three bedroom house south of Brisbane. Had to have a mortgage of AUS$2500 to build. Happy days.

I was 18 my DH 22 when we purchased our first house in the late 70’s, we had scrimped to save up a deposit and only got the mortgage by the skin of our teeth. We paid just under £9k for our first house.

Think we bought our first house in 1972 as well, 2 bed terrace £5850 just south of London.
Property prices was going mad and was much cheaper had we been able to buy a few months earlier.

Georgesgran

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.

It was in London , even then prices were higher than other UK places. I still live in London and wouldn’t move away .

In 1985 I was 19 and my fiancé was 21. We bought a new build for £44000. Sold it for £88000 3 years later.

We were both 25. We bought a ground floor maisonette in West London. Prices were rising incredibly fast at that time.
2 children and a job change later we needed to move so had it valued - an increase of £25,000. But then came the crash of the 90's and we eventually sold it for just over our original price. Just avoided negative equity.
Second house was a four-bed semi and we stayed there for 25 years or so.

Casdon I think the rising age at which people get married or settle into committed partnerships is partly why the age of first time home ownership is increasing, it’s not just a financial issue. Women get married on average at 31, and men at 33 now - probably 10 years older on average than in the 1960s and 70s - many are having active single lives and don’t want the responsibility in their twenties.

I agree, the age difference in marriage is much to why people are buying homes later. Not finances, they're having active lives before settling.

Late 30s when we bought our first house, the interest rate jumped from 9.5 to 15.25% before we moved in.

26.

I was 28, and my husband was 34, we bought when we married.

I think the rising age at which people get married or settle into committed partnerships is partly why the age of first time home ownership is increasing, it’s not just a financial issue. Women get married on average at 31, and men at 33 now - probably 10 years older on average than in the 1960s and 70s - many are having active single lives and don’t want the responsibility in their twenties.

Before the pandemic, the average age of a first-time buyer was 32, based on analysis of Land Registry data and figures from comparison website GetAgent's partner estate agents.
15 Mar 2022 www.ftadviser.com › covid-p...Covid

My ex-H and I were 22 and 24 when we bought a lovely maisonette. My son moved out to rent with a friend when he was 21 and eventually bought a flat with his fiancée when he was 29, my daughters lived with me and (with their respective partners) saved until they were 27 and 28 before buying their first houses.

I was 31, just had my second child and bought an ex LA townhouse in a newtown. I've got to say, it was the springboard for our future travels, adventures and exploration of what/where we wanted for a home. Life, health, unemployment etc got in the way and we find ourselves back in an ex LA bungalow with 1 bedroom! We've had a blast though!

I bought a small studio flat in the 1980s at the age of 23. Had trouble getting a mortgage but eventually someone believed in me!
Sold for quite a profit 4 years later and married. Our 1930s house had issues with the roof and floor so we lived on plastic garden furniture and cooked with a microwave and bbq. Eventually saved up enough to get it all sorted out. We were both scared to get into debt so lived quite frugally for some time . Still in the same house.

A sister, who’s nearly 5 years older - got married in 1967 and a year or two afterwards they bought their first house - a 3 bed new build semi - for around £3,500.

Admittedly it was a slightly more expensive area but our first house bought in 1977 cost just over 10 times that. It’s not just recently that prices have shot up.

A dd bought an ex council house a few years ago. The former owners (it was a probate sale) had lived there since buying from the council in 1971 - well before Thatcher, so evidently not a new thing even then. (Dh had a good old nose on Nethouseprices to find this out.)

They paid almost exactly 1% of what dd paid.

I am reading of sacrifices made in the early days.
I recently replaced my conservatory table and two chairs as I needed a larger 4 seater one.
The original is in really good condition, cane with a glass top.
Two nice chairs with upholstered cushions.
My GD’s friend was moving into a flat with her two year old and I offered the set to her, free of course.
Oh, no thank you she preferred to have new on credit.
She gets benefits, but would rather go into even more debt.

I was 21 and my DH was 25. We moved in with little furniture and sat on deck chairs in the lounge. We bought a bed and wardrobes. The kitchen table was second hand. Still here, many, many years later.

The problem is unforseen circumstances. When we got married in 1968, graduate women like me, with professional jobs were pushing Building Societies to take into account the wife's income as well as the mans and we were very happy that our Building Society was prepared to take half my income into consideration when we applied for a mortgage.

Unfortunately the result has been that house prices have risen to meet the available income and it is now very difficuly for anyone to buy a property without two incomes to get a big enough mortgage to buy a house and, as ever, those on smaller incomes, still find it nearly impossible.

Having said that, buying your first house has always been a struggle, when ever you did it and what ever your income and itis no different now, when DC bought their first houses, they struggled as we did and DD was very proud of how, by begging, borrowing, if not stealing, scouring small ads and buying at auction she furnished her first property, a 2 bedroomed flat, for under £500, including white goods.

I was 22.

Only 2.5 times your salary and interest rate of 15%.

growstuff my last holiday was in 2005. I only went to York for 4 days only reason I went I had promised my husband I would go on holiday the year after he died. He died in 2004 aged 47 I was 45. I don't drink, smoke,drive ,have holidays expensive clothes. I wasn't brought up with money so have had to be very careful with money . Cook from scratch as it's cheaper and healthier. I am 64 and can only have my heating on 4 hours a day. Think I have made all the scarifies I can so I can live in my lovely bungalow in a lovely part of the north west.

My biggest sacrifice was my darling husband died in agony from cancer. And I am the one who has had health problems all my life. And no I don't get any benefits of any sort.

I was 22, DH 25. 1970. We tried to buy a picture postcard cottage in Kent for £1700 cash but alas we couldn't quite afford it. No mortgage available.
So we went for a new build 3 bed terrace with mortgage. It cost £4500 - a fortune. We brought one of our flatmates with us to help pay the mortgage.
The garden was miniscule and lost the sun by midday.
The developer had run out of money so there was a gap site behind the row of houses. All of us in the row decided to extend our gardens to double their size and get some sunshine.
I recently looked on Google maps and the extended gardens are still there!

I was 19, husband was 25 . Those were the days. 100% mortgage, nice little 2 bedroomed house with a long garden at the back . I think it was about £3,000.

We were just shy of 28 and 35 and had been scrimping and saving every spare penny for years.

I was about 25, I think. Mr A and I were both renting flats in London and decided to move in together when we found a new Barratt one-bed flat in Acton for about 34,000. Mortgages were high but everyone told us it was cheaper to buy than rent. We had a bit of a shock when we spent both our (reasonable) salaries every month just to pay the bills and eat. We had enough to buy a bed and sheets when we moved in but were lucky to have a built in kitchen. I had my first 'party' for my friends sitting on cardboard boxes and eating off a bigger cardboard box covered in a sheet 😄 For the first year we lived out of tins of soup and beans for about two weeks of the month. Happy days.