Housing Crisis: We Bought Our Home 4 Months Ago, We Can’t Afford Houses on Our Street Now

Had we started our house hunt just a few months later, we would be completely priced out of the market.

A few houses on our street went up for sale over the last couple of months. Out of interest, I looked up their prices. When I saw what they were selling for, I balked.

We bought our first house in November 2021. We’ve only been homeowners for four months now.

I feel so exceptionally lucky and privileged to be in this position. Many people my age, who work just as hard, will never be able to own their homes because we live in a broken system.

It was not easy becoming homeowners.

Not that it ever is, but we smugly believed we’d breeze through the buying process.

Oh, how our hubris was punished!

First, a little background.

We were in such a great position to buy

We had a 20% deposit, a mortgage in principle, we were both fully employed with excellent credit scores, and we were first-time buyers too.

No kids and no debt either.

All of this meant we could move quickly and complete a sale at the seller’s leisure.

Estate agents said we were their dream buyers.

Yet, each time we put in an offer we were outbid. Even when we stretched ourselves and put in offers above the asking price.

It was heartbreaking, agonizing and we felt so incredibly helpless each time we got a no. What were we doing wrong?

Anecdotally, we heard from colleagues in the same situation that homes they’d put offers on had gone for £60k — £100k above the asking price.

It was ludicrous!

The previous owners bought our current home for £183,000 in December 2020. We thought we were getting fleeced when we had to spend £210,000 to secure this house not even a year later.

This was meant to be an ‘affordable area’ after all. We’d done everything the boomers said we should do. Moved somewhere cheap, saved up, worked hard, etc.

The only thing we didn’t do was give up avocado toast. That may have been our downfall.

Here we were, stretching ourselves to our very limit despite bringing in twice the average household income in the UK, and we couldn’t even secure a mid-range property in the North of England.

We were about to give up entirely and start looking at an even cheaper area. It was a bit dodgy and my boyfriend would have a longer commute, but at this rate, nothing else looked promising.

We got our dream home

Then, a miracle happened! As if by magic, our dream home was listed. And it was within our price range:

“Offers over £200,000.”

We could do that!

We could offer over £200,000 and still put down a 20% deposit!

We jumped on it. Booked a viewing right away and made an offer not even 24 hours after we’d viewed it.

Luckily for us, we gelled with the sellers and they accepted our offer of £210,000 after a little to-and-fro.

We’d hoped to get it for £205,000, but £210,000 was our limit.

Still, we were lucky. They told us just a couple of days after us, someone called and said they’d put down £210,000 right now.

Without even seeing the property.

I thought it was weird to drop £200k on anything after only seeing it once for 15 minutes, but people were willing to do it without even seeing it.

Is homeownership now only for people with no children, no debt, and above-average incomes? Should everyone else just rent forever? That’s bullshit.

Had it gone to a bidding war, they would have likely got a lot more for it and we would have lost it.

They decided not to.

Still.

Our sellers bought our current home for £183,000 in December 2020.

We thought we were getting fleeced by the market when we had to spend £210,000 to secure this house not even a year later.

Oh, how wrong we were.

Had we started looking a few months later, we’d be screwed

We bought our home for £210,000. We completed in November 2021.

Since then, houses in the area have gone up for sale. But oh, the prices they’re selling for! This home, for instance, came up on Rightmove last month.

It sold within a couple of weeks! The listed price is £240,000. But given how quickly it sold, my guess is it went for the asking price or above.

Let’s say it only went for the asking price. In today’s market, that’s a modest estimate.

But, let’s stick with that. That means, that since November 2021, house prices on my street have gone up by £30,000! That’s a 12.5% increase.

And I know what you’re going to say — but was the house significantly better? No!!

Same side of the street, same layout, smaller garden, definitely in need of renovation. The only thing it had going for it was a small conservatory tacked on at the back of it.

But since when is that worth £30k? Especially when your garden is north-facing so you only get sun in the bottom of the garden for most of the day?

People like to say how house prices rise, but so do salaries.

However, I can assure you most people where I live did not get a 12.5% raise over the last four months to keep up with house prices.

This has been going on for decades now.

This is why young people struggle to get on the housing market.

Is homeownership now only for people with no children, no debt, and above-average incomes? Should everyone else just rent forever? That’s bullshit.

Takeaways? Let’s see.

Here’s a couple with no kids, a decent income, decent savings, no real debt, and a great credit score.

By all accounts, this couple should be able to buy a mid-range home in one of the cheapest areas of the country easily.

Yet, had we started looking now, we would be completely priced out of the area.

We would not be able to buy the house from which I am currently writing this story.

We could afford it four months ago. We could not afford it now if we started all over again.

Now, let’s say we earned the average household income. Let’s say we had kids. Let’s say we were paying off debt.

We simply couldn’t afford to buy. Not even in the cheapest areas in England.

And, if that doesn’t illustrate the point, tell me again, did you get a 12.5% salary bump over the last four months? No?

This has been going on for years.

There are a lot of salary bumps we missed while house prices skyrocketed. That’s why it’s hard.

If you bought 30 years ago, you’re lucky. It was a completely different ballgame.

Please explain to me how the system isn’t broken.

If you enjoyed this story and want to support my writing, please consider following me or signing up to Medium via my referral link.

If you sign up via my referral link, a portion of your monthly fee will support me directly.