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Property Prices in the 70s and 80s Compared to Now

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  • 12-12-2019 6:57pm
    #1
    Rothmans
    Registered Users Posts: 1,805 ✭✭✭


    Stumbled across this news report from 1978. We think we have it bad today (and we do, in fairness), but I would not have liked to have been trying to buy in the late seventies. House prices doubling in the space of one year, 14% interest rates. Certainly a lot of parallels between then and today though, the main one being the pent up demand coming out of a recession.


    https://www.rte.ie/archives/2018/1211/1016463-house-prices-out-of-control/


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    #2
    pearcider
    Registered Users Posts: 1,033 ✭✭✭pearcider


    Rothmans wrote: »
    Stumbled across this news report from 1978. We think we have it bad today (and we do, in fairness), but I would not have liked to have been trying to buy in the late seventies. House prices doubling in the space of one year, 14% interest rates. Certainly a lot of parallels between then and today though, the main one being the pent up demand coming out of a recession.


    https://www.rte.ie/archives/2018/1211/1016463-house-prices-out-of-control/


    Inflation was huge in the 70s and 80s. This eroded debt in real terms. My da bought his Gaf in 1984 for 30 grand when his salary was 15. The same Gaf is now “worth” 500k but the exact same job pays 80k. The inflation of the property market is the biggest scam of the century. It’s a function of absurdly low interest rates and cheap credit and will end in disaster when the debt becomes too great to sustain.


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    #3
    SozBbz
    Registered Users Posts: 1,889 ✭✭✭SozBbz


    pearcider wrote: »
    Inflation was huge in the 70s and 80s. This eroded debt in real terms. My da bought his Gaf in 1984 for 30 grand when his salary was 15. The same Gaf is now “worth” 500k but the exact same job pays 80k. The inflation of the property market is the biggest scam of the century. It’s a function of absurdly low interest rates and cheap credit and will end in disaster when the debt becomes too great to sustain.

    Nah, I don't think so.

    You're totally ignoring interest rates and the standard of housing.

    Sure, on paper a house only twice your annual gross income sounds ideal but he in the 80's he could have been paying close on 20% interest. The repayments were still a struggle for a lot of people.

    I'm also sure your dad has invested considerably in that same house since 1984 if its worth €500k today. Todays expectation around housing is a lot fancier than in the early to mid 80's. Back then it wouldnt have been unusal for houses not to have central heating, let alone the modern conveniences that people expect as standard these days. A house only done to 1980's standards, would be considered a total renovation job today.


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    #4
    Padre_Pio
    Registered Users Posts: 4,934 ✭✭✭Padre_Pio


    SozBbz wrote: »
    A house only done to 1980's standards, would be considered a total renovation job today.

    I could see my breath when I woke up most mornings in our 1980s built house.

    Dad changed the windows and pumped the walls but it didn't help much.


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    #5
    Mickiemcfist
    Registered Users Posts: 1,585 ✭✭✭Mickiemcfist


    SozBbz wrote: »
    Nah, I don't think so.

    You're totally ignoring interest rates and the standard of housing.

    Sure, on paper a house only twice your annual gross income sounds ideal but he in the 80's he could have been paying close on 20% interest. The repayments were still a struggle for a lot of people.

    I'm also sure your dad has invested considerably in that same house since 1984 if its worth €500k today. Todays expectation around housing is a lot fancier than in the early to mid 80's. Back then it wouldnt have been unusal for houses not to have central heating, let alone the modern conveniences that people expect as standard these days. A house only done to 1980's standards, would be considered a total renovation job today.

    Those interest rates didn't last for the entire length of the mortgage though, unless your timing was particularly unlucky.

    Do you not think someone living in a 2019 new build will need to invest considerably by 2054? Only difference is that we're much more leveraged at the start point of the mortgage so we'll be in a comparably worse position by the end.


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    #6
    SozBbz
    Registered Users Posts: 1,889 ✭✭✭SozBbz


    Mickiemcfist wrote: »
    Those interest rates didn't last for the entire length of the mortgage though, unless your timing was particularly unlucky.

    Do you not think someone living in a 2019 new build will need to invest considerably by 2054? Only difference is that we're much more leveraged at the start point of the mortgage so we'll be in a comparably worse position by the end.


    No, but they couldnt have known how long it was going to last. Like it still took people 20-30 years to pay off their houses. They were still paying a large % of after tax income similar to service mortgages on a monthly basis. They probably didnt start to feel cheap until the mid 90's.

    My parents bought their house for £54k in 1983. They've told me that although it sounds comically cheap that it felt expensive at the time.

    They've spend a few thousand every year on the house, just keeping it in good order. Obviously thats been higher in some years if major works were done, but the point I'm making is that maintaining a house is not free. Too many posters seem to think that mortgage payment = cost of owning a house. Its a 1920's red brick and a smaller version on the same road recently went for €775, so its worth plenty relative to its upkeep and certainly relative to the initial purchase, but affordability is based on multiple factors.

    Hard to say what a 2019 built house will require in years to come. It does seem to me that the building regs now are much more forward looking than previously, with the focus on energy efficiency etc. However who's to say what new technologies will become prevalent and become the new normal. For example, I can see electric heating systems becoming popular again as the grid becomes more and more powered by renewables. I think all houses require reinvestment, maybe bar the first 10 years after its first built.


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    #7
    Mickiemcfist
    Registered Users Posts: 1,585 ✭✭✭Mickiemcfist


    SozBbz wrote: »
    No, but they couldnt have known how long it was going to last. Like it still took people 20-30 years to pay off their houses. They were still paying a large % of after tax income similar to service mortgages on a monthly basis. They probably didnt start to feel cheap until the mid 90's.

    My parents bought their house for £54k in 1983. They've told me that although it sounds comically cheap that it felt expensive at the time.

    They've spend a few thousand every year on the house, just keeping it in good order. Obviously thats been higher in some years if major works were done, but the point I'm making is that maintaining a house is not free. Too many posters seem to think that mortgage payment = cost of owning a house. Its a 1920's red brick and a smaller version on the same road recently went for €775, so its worth plenty relative to its upkeep and certainly relative to the initial purchase, but affordability is based on multiple factors.

    Hard to say what a 2019 built house will require in years to come. It does seem to me that the building regs now are much more forward looking than previously, with the focus on energy efficiency etc. However who's to say what new technologies will become prevalent and become the new normal. For example, I can see electric heating systems becoming popular again as the grid becomes more and more powered by renewables. I think all houses require reinvestment, maybe bar the first 10 years after its first built.

    You were arguing against the fact that rapid inflation assisted our parents generation (my parents bought around the same time as yours), but it is a pretty comprehensive fact as borne out by many many studies. My parents also say it "felt expensive" but when mortgage repayments are compared to take home pay it doesn't carry much weight.

    Houses today are built & expected to stay at a high standard, mech & elec will deteriorate, MHRV, solar, heat pumps, boilers, windows, doors etc. will all need to be replaced & upgraded over a 35 year timeframe, add on to that what other technological & green advancements we'll make over that time - we're not getting a free pass unfortunately.


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    #8
    SozBbz
    Registered Users Posts: 1,889 ✭✭✭SozBbz


    Mickiemcfist wrote: »
    You were arguing against the fact that rapid inflation assisted our parents generation (my parents bought around the same time as yours), but it is a pretty comprehensive fact as borne out by many many studies. My parents also say it "felt expensive" but when mortgage repayments are compared to take home pay it doesn't carry much weight.

    Houses today are built & expected to stay at a high standard, mech & elec will deteriorate, MHRV, solar, heat pumps, boilers, windows, doors etc. will all need to be replaced & upgraded over a 35 year timeframe, add on to that what other technological & green advancements we'll make over that time - we're not getting a free pass unfortunately.

    I never said we were getting a free pass? I said quite clearly that all home require reinvestment. Who's to say that that will look like in 30/40/50 years? Maybe heatpumps etc will be considered archaic in favour of something even more efficient, reliable, whatever. I do however think the real build cost of a 2019 property as compared to one built in 1980 is much higher, even when adjusted for inflation. As I said, we're going to build an inter connector to France in the next 10 years which allows us to leverage their nuclear based grid - even with everything else remaining the same, that would make us 70% renewal instead of the current 30% - In that context, surely electric systems would be seen as more viable than they currently are. But thats all guess work.

    I'm saying that it assisted them but only after the fact, and they couldnt have known that at the time of purchase - they bought anyway. The fact that things worked out for them is neither here nor their, it wasnt intentional. If you bought a house in 1982, paid interest at ~15% for a decade, then I doubt you thought it was cheap. The fact that during the 90's things changed, doesn't mean those hardships in the 80's never happened.

    Please provide evidence of your assertion that mortgage payments in the 80's were cheap relative to take home pay. Also keep in mind that most households were single income back then.


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    #9
    pearcider
    Registered Users Posts: 1,033 ✭✭✭pearcider


    SozBbz wrote: »
    Nah, I don't think so.

    You're totally ignoring interest rates and the standard of housing.

    Sure, on paper a house only twice your annual gross income sounds ideal but he in the 80's he could have been paying close on 20% interest. The repayments were still a struggle for a lot of people.

    I'm also sure your dad has invested considerably in that same house since 1984 if its worth €500k today. Todays expectation around housing is a lot fancier than in the early to mid 80's. Back then it wouldnt have been unusal for houses not to have central heating, let alone the modern conveniences that people expect as standard these days. A house only done to 1980's standards, would be considered a total renovation job today.

    Exactly the low interest rates are keeping the property prices elevated. When the serious inflation comes into food and energy interest rates will have to rise. Once this happens, credit will go back to being correctly priced and property prices will collapse.

    The things about gafs in the 80s being not as good as gafs today is rubbish! They had bigger gardens, no service charges, no property taxes and were in less crowded and more pleasant towns. In other words for every perceived increase in quality you mention I can mention a decrease in quality.

    These so called hedonic quality adjustments are the principal way our out of control socialists governments deliberately understate inflation in the CPI. This is to maintain confidence in the credit bubble which will, despite all the efforts of the central planners, inevitably burst with catastrophic consequences for the real economy.


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    #10
    riclad
    Registered Users Posts: 8,184 ✭✭✭riclad


    I Think in the 80,s anyone who was working could afford to buy a house,
    now many people who work in dublin ,have to buy outside dublin and commute to work.
    Many people will buy a 1 bed apartment if the can find one at a reasonable price .In the 80,s the council would build 1000,s of house,s
    ,now it costs the council 300k to build 1 house or buy it from a builder .
    People did not worry about climate change.
    Maybe the worried about the cold war.
    i don,t want to be sexist but it was possible for one earner to buy a house,
    now it,s almost assumed both the man and the woman will work ,
    it will take 2 wages to buy a house.
    eg in the 80,s more women stayed at home and had children .
    yes 80,s built house,s were not heavily insulated or energy effecient
    versus a house built in 2019


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    #11
    TSQ
    Registered Users Posts: 283 ✭✭TSQ


    pearcider wrote: »
    The things about gafs in the 80s being not as good as gafs today is rubbish! They had bigger gardens, no service charges, no property taxes and were in less crowded and more pleasant towns. In other words for every perceived increase in quality you mention I can mention a decrease in quality.
    .

    I dont think the poster was referring to plot sizes or nice neighbourhoods but to the cost of all the bells and whistles mandated by building Regs and what would then have been considered luxuries demanded by the modern first time buyer : double/triple glazing, central heating, ensuite bathrooms - standard 1980 2/3 bed house had 1 bathroom - fitted kitchen, solar panels, heat exchange system, wired smoke alarms, high spec insulation - anyone renovating a 1980s house can tell you what upgrading to modern standards costs. The mortgage interest was over 14% in 1980 and didnt drop below 10% for the rest of the decade. So although the price of A starter home was low, the actual cost of a home was a lot higher in real terms (as a percentage of take home pay). Plus running costs were higher, badly insulated houses cost a fortune to heat, and many didnt even have central heating.


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    #12
    pearcider
    Registered Users Posts: 1,033 ✭✭✭pearcider


    TSQ wrote: »
    I dont think the poster was referring to plot sizes or nice neighbourhoods but to the cost of all the bells and whistles mandated by building Regs and what would then have been considered luxuries demanded by the modern first time buyer : double/triple glazing, central heating, ensuite bathrooms - standard 1980 2/3 bed house had 1 bathroom - fitted kitchen, solar panels, heat exchange system, wired smoke alarms, high spec insulation - anyone renovating a 1980s house can tell you what upgrading to modern standards costs. The mortgage interest was over 14% in 1980 and didnt drop below 10% for the rest of the decade. So although the price of A starter home was low, the actual cost of a home was a lot higher in real terms (as a percentage of take home pay). Plus running costs were higher, badly insulated houses cost a fortune to heat, and many didnt even have central heating.

    I think you’re missing my point. If the poster can refer to wired alarm systems as a reason why house today are better value than houses 30 years ago, then surely I can bring up the larger gardens, parks, roads and verges of older houses as a reason why that is not true.

    You talk about high spec insulation and triple glazed windows as if these things should cost relatively more when in fact the lower priced alternatives are not even available and the industrial processes that make these are more efficient. But the entire argument is a red herring. Can you buy a CRT type TV today in the shop.? The comparison is both impossible and meaningless.

    But we can compare average salaries and average house prices. There the facts are quite clear. Property is overvalued today by an absurd factor and this is the primary reason we have a housing crisis in the first place. The market has been so distorted by the financial and regulatory powers to the extent that it no longer works efficiently.

    Yes interest rates were higher then but that was a good thing. It made saving your deposit easier and it made the term on your mortgage much less. 15-20 years was the norm then. Now it’s 30. Nearly half of first time mortgages are 35 years. These silly loans are also incredibly vulnerable to increasing interest rates. Who benefits from this? If you think it’s the average working family, you’re not thinking straight.


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    #13
    TSQ
    Registered Users Posts: 283 ✭✭TSQ


    The reason tvs and other electronic goods are cheaper now is because, as with all technologies, prices drop once a critical mass of sales/production is reached, not to mention, production is outsourced to low wage, low tax countries. To compare houses to tvs or mobile phones is ridiculous... unless you think we can import hi-tech mass produced houses from china maybe? The point is now all houses are obliged or expected to have all of these upgrades, and so the base cost of any house is higher. A proper comparison would be if the government mandated that only high tech 5g ready smart phones could be sold and banned sales of those cheap throwaway phones you can pick up for €20. The minimum price of a phone would go up to €300+, even if the buyer would prefer to pay less and have a bog standard phone. And by the way, I dont know where the idea has come from that the masses bought their own homes back then.. lots of people in the 80s and earlier who could save the deposit had no hope of getting mortgage approved because the repayments at such high rates of interest were assessed as too high for their income. These people ended up mostly in council housing, or if unmarried never left home, and the most unfortunate have spent a lifetime in private rental. Of course, there are no council houses being built now.


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    #14
    Padre_Pio
    Registered Users Posts: 4,934 ✭✭✭Padre_Pio


    TSQ wrote: »
    lots of people in the 80s and earlier who could save the deposit had no hope of getting mortgage approved because the repayments at such high rates of interest were assessed as too high for their income. These people ended up mostly in council housing, or if unmarried never left home, and the most unfortunate have spent a lifetime in private rental. Of course, there are no council houses being built now.
    This topic has been done to death on numerous threads.

    Some people have rose tinted glasses about the past, where a blue collar one income family could buy a decent house and have a reasonable standard of living.

    They scrimped and saved same as the rest of us.


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    #15
    pearcider
    Registered Users Posts: 1,033 ✭✭✭pearcider


    Padre_Pio wrote: »
    This topic has been done to death on numerous threads.

    Some people have rose tinted glasses about the past, where a blue collar one income family could buy a decent house and have a reasonable standard of living.

    They scrimped and saved same as the rest of us.

    That’s disingenuous rubbish too. The gap in income between the rich and the middle class has increased at least five fold since 1980 and that’s using official statistics which are clearly massaged. The stats say that the middle 60% aka the middle class seen their income rise by 46% since 1980 while the top 1% has seen their wealth grow by 226% over the same period. It’s the corrupt system to blame and nothing else. The only good news is that the whole rotten edifice will soon collapse. This was of course predicted in the 1940s and when it was pointed out to John Maynard Keynes who designed the corrupt system he said “who cares in the long run we are all dead.” Which is exactly the type of response you’d expect from a man with no children. Verily, we will reap what we sow.


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    #16
    Graham
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 17,642 Mod ✭✭✭✭Graham


    Mod Note

    Thread split.


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    #17
    TSQ
    Registered Users Posts: 283 ✭✭TSQ


    pearcider wrote: »
    That’s disingenuous rubbish too. The gap in income between the rich and the middle class has increased at least five fold since 1980 and that’s using official statistics which are clearly massaged. The stats say that the middle 60% aka the middle class seen their income rise by 46% since 1980 while the top 1% has seen their wealth grow by 226% over the same period. It’s the corrupt system to blame and nothing else. The only good news is that the whole rotten edifice will soon collapse. This was of course predicted in the 1940s and when it was pointed out to John Maynard Keynes who designed the corrupt system he said “who cares in the long run we are all dead.” Which is exactly the type of response you’d expect from a man with no children. Verily, we will reap what we sow.

    Yes, and Jeremy Corbyn will be the next UK prime minister.


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    #18
    10pennymixup
    Registered Users Posts: 516 ✭✭✭10pennymixup


    pearcider wrote: »
    Exactly the low interest rates are keeping the property prices elevated. When the serious inflation comes into food and energy interest rates will have to rise. Once this happens, credit will go back to being correctly priced and property prices will collapse.

    The things about gafs in the 80s being not as good as gafs today is rubbish! They had bigger gardens, no service charges, no property taxes and were in less crowded and more pleasant towns. In other words for every perceived increase in quality you mention I can mention a decrease in quality.

    These so called hedonic quality adjustments are the principal way our out of control socialists governments deliberately understate inflation in the CPI. This is to maintain confidence in the credit bubble which will, despite all the efforts of the central planners, inevitably burst with catastrophic consequences for the real economy.

    I'd just like to point out sizes of gardens depends on the house type and is not a comparison that should be used.

    There were service charges on apartments, and ground rents on private houses. There were property taxes in the 80s. And those houses you talk of are still in the same "pleasant" towns.

    And absolutely no one, no one had "gafs"

    Another thing was there was no real building regulations. They only started in the early 80s and were basic and today's reg's could be described as space age in comparison.

    In other words a massive increase in building quality, despite your assertion otherwise.


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    #19
    antimatterx
    Registered Users Posts: 2,679 ✭✭✭antimatterx


    Sure my Dad was making 50 punt a week in 87 and that was a good wage. His dad bought him a house in 93 for 33K punt and he bought another house in 96 for 50K.

    He still has the 33K house and has rented it out for 25 years. He sold the 50K for 410K in May 2008 (so lucky with that timing)


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    #20
    silver2020
    Registered Users Posts: 2,045 ✭✭✭silver2020


    In 1986/87 you'd get a good 3 bed semi in Goatstown/Dundrum for £40,000. (Birchfield)
    You'd get a detached bungalow in Celbridge & Naas for £30,000.

    In 1990 you'd get a good 3 bed semi in Ballinteer for £60,000

    But interest rates were circa 10% on average, a good salary was £15,000 and you were taxed to the hilt.

    Insulation and general finish on the houses were basic, but fine for a first time buyer.

    I was involved in property advertising at the time and managed to buy my first house for £63k in Ballinteer - but repayments on a 20 year mortgage were about £600 a month. - You'd borrow €120,000 now with the same repayments


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    #21
    pearcider
    Registered Users Posts: 1,033 ✭✭✭pearcider


    10pennymixup wrote: »
    I'd just like to point out sizes of gardens depends on the house type and is not a comparison that should be used.

    There were service charges on apartments, and ground rents on private houses. There were property taxes in the 80s. And those houses you talk of are still in the same "pleasant" towns.

    And absolutely no one, no one had "gafs"

    Another thing was there was no real building regulations. They only started in the early 80s and were basic and today's reg's could be described as space age in comparison.

    In other words a massive increase in building quality, despite your assertion otherwise.

    I dispute that. Houses today don’t have room to swing a cat in compared to the old days. Everything has shrunk even the verges. you only have to go to a old estate to see we’ve been sold a pup. If you want a brand new similar size house to the one my dad bought it’d be close to a million I reckon. Try saving a 100k on 80k salary today with zero percent interest in your savings. Or try getting a mortgage of 900k.

    The formerly nice commuter towns in Dublin are all jammed with traffic now and the schools are full. There was no traffic in the 80s so once again a big decrease in quality of life. But as I said the argument is nonsense anyway.


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    #22
    riclad
    Registered Users Posts: 8,184 ✭✭✭riclad


    House.s in the 80,s were larger, go to an old estate ,there is more green space, gardens were larger.
    i don,t think its rose tinted to say anyone who was working in the 80,s
    could buy a house if they wanted to.
    A single person could buy a house .
    now to buy a 3 bed house it usually takes 2 incomes .
    now we are in a boom, theres loads jobs going.
    rents were low in the 80,s .
    there was no housing crisis .
    Its a catch 22, easy to get a job, its hard to buy a house or save for a deposit when you are paying a high rent


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    #23
    silver2020
    Registered Users Posts: 2,045 ✭✭✭silver2020


    riclad wrote: »
    House.s in the 80,s were larger, go to an old estate ,there is more green space, gardens were larger.
    i don,t think its rose tinted to say anyone who was working in the 80,s
    could buy a house if they wanted to.
    A single person could buy a house .
    now to buy a 3 bed house it usually takes 2 incomes .
    now we are in a boom, theres loads jobs going.
    rents were low in the 80,s .
    there was no housing crisis .
    Its a catch 22, easy to get a job, its hard to buy a house or save for a deposit when you are paying a high rent

    Gardens were bigger, but houses were smaller. The "3rd" bedroom was miniscule and most 3 bed semi were under 1,000 sq ft - many were just over 900 sq ft.

    These days they build into the attic, so you have 3 decent size bedrooms on the same footprint.

    Yep, a single person could buy a house - if they had a good job. Unemployment was stuck at 12%-16% and well paid jobs were difficult to come by and tens of thousands emigrated.

    It was due to emigration that there was no housing crisis - not many needed a house as they were off to UK or Australia.

    House prices were in the doldrums as interest rates were high and few buyer around.

    Then Microsoft arrived :) followed by every other tech giant and jobs became plentiful


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    #24
    10pennymixup
    Registered Users Posts: 516 ✭✭✭10pennymixup


    pearcider wrote: »
    I dispute that. Houses today don’t have room to swing a cat in compared to the old days. Everything has shrunk even the verges. you only have to go to a old estate to see we’ve been sold a pup. If you want a brand new similar size house to the one my dad bought it’d be close to a million I reckon. Try saving a 100k on 80k salary today with zero percent interest in your savings. Or try getting a mortgage of 900k.

    The formerly nice commuter towns in Dublin are all jammed with traffic now and the schools are full. There was no traffic in the 80s so once again a big decrease in quality of life. But as I said the argument is nonsense anyway.

    I wasn't addressing your dubious economic claims. The property market today is far more complex than then and can't really be compared.

    I was refuting your claim that there was no property tax/ ground rents/ services charges in the past. And there was.

    I also pointed out that houses now are far better built due to better regulations than then.

    The commuter towns were choked with traffic then too. The Naas motorway/ bypass was opened in 1983. Planning and construction started years before to alleviate traffic in the town.

    I think you might have to go back another decade or two to rural idles mentioned in the Maeve Binchey books to try prove that point.


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    #25
    Eric Cartman
    Registered Users Posts: 26,283 ✭✭✭✭Eric Cartman


    in 1981 over 55% of women were home makers, its now below 17.5% , even then there was a lot of work they couldnt do and especially professional work. Buying a house in 1980 was completely different, you would have had most households on one sallary , the house was to a much lower standard , wage inflation absolutely ate the price of the house when you were half way through the mortgage.

    the problem is now that houses require two incomes from full time work and the mortgages are only affordable because interest rates are right in the toilet, if rates climb we're going to see a lot of people handing back the keys in a few years.


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    #26
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,815 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Just tried to find an ad for how much my house cost new in '72 in the Irish Times archives. Never actually did that before so had no idea what it cost.

    Slight issue is the estate was built to one set of plans by about ten builders at the same time, and most didn't put prices in, so only found a priced ad for the 3 bed semis - £5,200. Those had oil central heating (via an oil Stanley range) whereas mine had the cheaper forced air system so I'd guess maybe £4,500.

    Average income was ~1500 at time. My parents were right about it probably having been three times salary :pac:


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    #27
    Ashleigh1986
    Registered Users Posts: 672 ✭✭✭Ashleigh1986


    Take a family of 4 in the 80s and a family today and compare the running costs of both households .
    Back in the 80s maybe one car ... Today ?
    Back in the 80s no yearly holiday ... Today ?
    Back in the 80s no gym membership/ no fortnight visits to the hairdresser / no mobile phone accounts / no sky packages / no crèche fees / ....
    Throw in all the designer sofas / beds / bathrooms etc etc ...
    Back in the 80s people had no credit cards ...
    The biggest change has been the amount of women that are now working.
    In the 80s that wasn't the case .
    Today both parents have to work and it's to pay for a lot of the sxxt we don't need.
    As time goes by in Ireland we become more and more like the Americans ...
    Consumers having to work to pay back a lot of the stuff we didn't have to change.


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    #28
    Jinglejangle69
    Registered Users Posts: 7,244 ✭✭✭Jinglejangle69


    Ashleigh1986 wrote: »
    Take a family of 4 in the 80s and a family today and compare the running costs of both households .
    Back in the 80s maybe one car ... Today ?
    Back in the 80s no yearly holiday ... Today ?
    Back in the 80s no gym membership/ no fortnight visits to the hairdresser / no mobile phone accounts / no sky packages / no crèche fees / ....
    Throw in all the designer sofas / beds / bathrooms etc etc ...
    Back in the 80s people had no credit cards ...
    The biggest change has been the amount of women that are now working.
    In the 80s that wasn't the case .
    Today both parents have to work and it's to pay for a lot of the sxxt we don't need.
    As time goes by in Ireland we become more and more like the Americans ...
    Consumers having to work to pay back a lot of the stuff we didn't have to change.

    Nail on the head.

    Take aways were a rare treat every few months.

    Now look at the amount of take away options around, people spend a fortune on them every week.


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    #29
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,376 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    In the 1980s as long as you had a proper job of some sort you could buy its just not like that today there are far more barriers to homeownership today. The standard was different house often has back boiler central heating home appliance were expensive but it was definitely easier for the average person to buy a house.


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    #30
    Jinglejangle69
    Registered Users Posts: 7,244 ✭✭✭Jinglejangle69


    After the recession the banks obviously had to tighten up their lending as they got stung badly.

    It’s common sense what they are doing.

    Who’s to blame?


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    #31
    Parentalunit
    Registered Users Posts: 47 ✭Parentalunit


    I was working in Dublin in the late 80s and remember a 3bd house on Homefarm Road for £31,000. I was one year into my first job and my salary was £11,000 pa, so in a couple of years I could have easily afforded it. Nowadays I'd say it's worth north of €600,000.
    Only problem was mortgage interest was much higher than today but it wouldn't have been difficult to rent out a few rooms to help pay the mortgage.


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