What can be done for first time buyers to make homes affordable?

Question

There's a desperate need for cheaper homes for young people. The problem will not go away so what can and should be done.

Answer 1

The problem is that about 5-6 years ago there was a rush of people who got into houses that they couldn't afford because the interest rate were low. They put little or no money down and got into adjustable mortgages to get their payments low in the short term. This created an artifical inflation in the housing market. Many of these houses are going into foreclosure. They smartest thing to do is to wait and save your money for the largest down payment you can afford. This will allow you to A) wait for the market to adjust itself back down.. which is happening right now and b)get into a payment you can afford and purchase a house at a non-inflated price.

Answer 2

A whole new way of thinking needs to develop. Why does everyone want to buy their home?. It is not as though you are here forever.
More social housing needs to built. There is no shame in living in a housing association property or a local authority house.
Too many people overstretch themselves to buy a house and then struggle with the repayments. A lot end up losing their homes and being made homeless and in debt.
Life is for living, not working round the clock just to service a crippling mortgage. It must be so depressing when you come home at the end of the month to find your salary will not even extend to a few pints down the pub with your mates.
The same mates who got a nice HA property that costs £300 a month, no maintenance bills, fancy holidays abroad, new car, money for a drink and a curry when they want.
Think about it, who wants to be the richest corpse in the graveyard?!.

Answer 3

Lower government taxes and fees. These are what truly make housing unaffordable. In san Diego the fees to build a new home are in the 100k range. By the time you add supplies and labor there is no way to build affordable housing and still have builders make a profit. Even when someone can afford the mortgage, the property taxes and insurance eat up the remainder of available funds.

Answer 4

The people who want to buy need to be financially stable enough to take on such a long-term financial commitment. When they are able to do that, they should be able to secure a loan and purchase WITHIN THEIR MEANS.

Part of the problem right now is that sub-prime lenders loaned money to all sorts of people who really shouldn't have qualified, and they are foreclosing on the houses because the buyers got themselves in over their heads (through ignorance, ill advice, or plain old bad luck).

Trust me - banks would rather have the money than the property.

But the BUYERS have to take personal responsibility first and foremost, and do the saving and budgeting necessary for a home.

Answer 5

Young people need to be fiscally responsible and prepare for home ownership.

I dread going over to the credit forum, as 85% of the posts talk about how to get more credit when they have horrible credit, getting out of credit card debt, repossession, etc., etc.. There are tons of posts in this forum about people losing their homes. It is sad.

First step to fiscal responsibility, live within your means.

Second, decide what is important. Is it important to go out for drinks with friends on the weekend? New shoes? A shiny car? If those things are important, great. But if home ownership is important, you have to plan and save for it. Every dollar counts.

I know some markets have outrageous prices for starter homes, and no one making $15.00 an hour is buying a $400,000 house. So if you are in one of those markets, I don't know what young people can do.

Answer 6

Your first step should be getting a pre-approval, which would help let you know what you can afford. secondly there are many programs out there that does assist first time home buyers, in form of grants, seller assist, and gift funds.
most program do this at a fixed rate and depending on credit starting as low as 6.5% rate. Look for lenders that offer first time home owner programs or programs for first time buyers.
F.Y.I.- FHA, MYCOMMUNITY, and OUR OWN HOME these are some of the programs that are out there.
Shirlaun H

Answer 7

Limit the amount that banks are allowed to lend. This would remove the pressure in the housing market. It would also have the beneficial side effect of reducing the number of hours people have to work just to pay their mortgage.... which would reduce the pressure on families. While banks determine how much people can borrow, and while banks make massive profits from lending, there is no incentive for them to keep personal borrowing under control.

Probably not a vote winner in a free-market obsessed economy.

Answer 8

Maybe first time home buyers could forgo: new cars, flatscreen tvs, computers, new cellphones, going out to dinner, vacations, basically anything kind of luxury and save the money to buy a house. Or perhaps they don't get to live in the neighborhood they want to? I see a lot of 20 somethings living high on the hog and yet seem to think they are entitled to easy credit or cheap housing. As someone in my late 30s who scraped and saved to buy my first house at 25, if I could do you can do it. Now that I have bought several houses and built equity and credit your demand for affordable housing comes at the expense of my profits in the real estate market.

Answer 9

renting property has overtaken home ownership now. With astronomical bills and interest rates looking set to go into double figures in the new year, I would wait for the market to crash. Possibly around next Christmas.

Answer 10

It is about time that they limit the amount of houses that people can buy ,

Some people have thirty or forty of them , as to rent them out

This is why the first time buyers find it hard to get on to the ladder , because these people get there first