Advice!

LegacyUser

Hi,

I am in a predicament, probably the worst one in my 26 years.

I have a g/f of 7 years and we have a 4 yo boy. We rented for a couple of years but in the last year we have been living with my mother so that we can save for a house. In this time we have saved 20k.

My problem is that we need to get out of my mothers asap and i find myself fighting with her about the direction i should take with housing my family and myself.

The options (that I can see) are...

Get a mortgage now ( i would only be able to get about 300k which in dublin is gonna get me dwelled in an area where i dont want my boy growing up) this i think is my worst option as i am fearful where the market is heading.

Private rent for mybe 1 - 2 years and see what happens with the housing market.

Wait and see if the affordable housing threshold inceases (its only 40k in my council)

Private rent but get the social welfare to pay for it (she will have to give up her job, something she does not want to do)

I would appreciate any guidence and would being eternlly grateful if anyone could help me deal with this despair.

Thanks...

The Sweeper

AlantheNeedy wrote:

Get a mortgage now ( i would only be able to get about 300k which in dublin is gonna get me dwelled in an area where i dont want my boy growing up) this i think is my worst option as i am fearful where the market is heading.

I'm not. To be honest, people have now been saying "oh the market's due a crash it's ridiculous" for seven years. There might be an adjustment involving a 5% drop in value or a market slow-down, but in all honestly you're not going to see €100K drop off the value of your property. And if you do, it's because there's been some global crisis that's realigned civilisation and housing is the least of your worries. Apparently the advice for first time buyers is bite the bullet and buy.

Ever considered somewhere further outside Dublin, or a direction opposite where you normally consider?

AlantheNeedy wrote:

Private rent for mybe 1 - 2 years and see what happens with the housing market.

I rent. (I'm in England, but it's not much different.) I rent for £700 a month, because the mortgage on this same flat would be £1100 a month. I don't want to buy here because I want to move to Australia where the baby boomers haven't wrecked the country for the rest of us by sitting pretty on property they bought 30 years ago which has appreciated 100-fold, and waiting for the last of the company pension plans unfold ahead of them. If I wasn't emigrating, I wouldn't be renting. I'd be trying to scratch my way onto the bottom rung of the property ladder.

AlantheNeedy wrote:

Wait and see if the affordable housing threshold inceases (its only 40k in my council)

I can't really give you an opinion on this matter, other than to suggest you might want to start researching it hard. Prompt the council, see if their long-term plans include upping the affordable housing threshold. Try and get a commitment from someone as to whether there's a chance it'll happen. Get as much info as possible so you can make an informed decision.

AlantheNeedy wrote:

Private rent but get the social welfare to pay for it (she will have to give up her job, something she does not want to do)

I doubt it would be as easy as 'jack job get rent paid'. To me this is just a sleazy option.

AlantheNeedy wrote:

I would appreciate any guidence and would being eternlly grateful if anyone could help me deal with this despair.

I understand your despair - I'm older than you and I still don't own property. And my way of dealing with that is to emigrate. That's because I assessed the market and figured I didn't have ties so it was more sensible for me to go further afield.

Honestly, I don't think there's going to be a house price adjustment that's so dramatic that suddenly prices fall within your grasp. If there is, it'll be because of massive economic upheaval with the unemployment levels that accompany recession. (In other words you may suddenly be confronted with what you had considered an afforable house, only to find you have no job.)

Have you tried speaking to a financial advisor about the best way to invest your 20K, see if you can squeeze that to yield a little more? Also, investigate the latest mortgage products - interest only mortgages etc - but before you go for anything, educate yourself.

If I were buying now, I'd probably go for an interest-only mortage, try and save as much money as I could in a high-yield account and plan a reassessment in two to three years time, at which point I'd get my property valued again and look at the mortgage market products to see if I could afford to either sell up for a better property or buy a more suitable mortage product for long-term, sustainable repayments. (Saying that, I've no kids so it's easy enough for me to hypothesise.)

Beruthiel

AlantheNeedy wrote:

Get a mortgage now ( i would only be able to get about 300k which in dublin is gonna get me dwelled in an area where i dont want my boy growing up) this i think is my worst option as i am fearful where the market is heading...

Or do what I did. Get a small appartment in a better area, put up with the lack of space for a few years, sell up and make a €100k+ profit and then buy your house where you want. Worked for me. You just need to see the bigger picture and aim for that.

ARGINITE

Would you consider moving to another part of the country?

dade

Beruthiel wrote:

Or do what I did. Get a small appartment in a better area, put up with the lack of space for a few years, sell up and make a €100k+ profit and then buy your house where you want. Worked for me. You just need to see the bigger picture and aim for that.

same here, wanted a house, say some 2 bed ones but in areas i dont much like for 260+, bot an apartment instead in an ok area, recently say that someone in teh same estate sold their apartment with about a 70-80K profit as i put in 20% of teh purchase price and i was a floor above this one and would be furnushed when sold i'm looking at 120K profit minimum if i sold tomorrow, but i'm content where i am because im not struggling under the strain of teh mortgage.

but i here where the OP is coming from. We moved into my mothers while waiting on the apartment and the first month or so where great, then all hell broke loose. we where not doing things teh way my mother wanted etc. got to teh point we just walked out, stayed in a B&B for a few days and then rented a place for 6 months waiting for teh apartment. granted teh renting was pissing money against a tree but still i knew it wasn't for ever.

I'd look into teh co owenership realy carefull, especially the buy out clause. so if you have teh option to buy them out make sure you dont have to pay them at teh current value of the property. so if they own 50% and iots worth 300 now but in a year uincreased to 400, ya now owe them 200 instead of 150 which makes it harder for you to buy them out and become completly independent.

or as was suggested maybe just an apartment, if its in an ok location (i'm just off the M1) then teh value will hold giving you a return on your investment and in a year or so you can get a small house someplace.

CathyMoran

There are some very nice 2 bed appartments in the Lucan area in your price range. I think that the two of you do need to move away from your mother in the interim though.

Ickle Magoo

I think you have to decide what your priorities are....are they getting out of your mothers ASAP or are they having a bigger house in a great area?

We had to bite the bullet & accept that our first house wasn't going to be a 4 bed detached with spacious garden in a lovely area...but we are working towards that! You could spend yrs waiting on a bust - if it happens in 10yrs you could have worked your way up to your dream house by then. Best of luck

letterman

You need to get your priorities in order. To me it sounds like you need to consider moving to the commuter belt if living at home is causing this amount of stress.

Black Swan

Temporarily overseas. In the neighborhood I live, they are claiming that the housing bubble has burst. Values are down 18 percent and new housing starts have dropped significantly. Not sure what will happen in Ireland, but the States are taking a hit in real estate prices.