Is there any other family out there that feels they will never be able to afford there own home?

Question

I am 33, my partner is 38 and we have four young kids. (Something I would not change so please don't say you should not have had kids)
He has been in an a average wage earning job since we have been together and I have worked full-time, then part time and casual and now not at all in paid work as my youngest is 6 months. Just wondered if there are other people out there that feel having a morgage is totally out of the question if you want to have or you do have kids given the costing of housing in Australia these days.

Answer 1

The idea of owning my own home used to seem pretty far out of reach.

The American dream centers around each generation being better offthan the last, but when I look at the homes people from my grandparents generation live in (and lived in when they were my age) and the homes people from my parents generation live in (and lived in) and then I look at my generation I have to wonder.

People are getting paid so much less in scale today than ever before. Sometimes BIG purchases like a home or a car can seem all but impossible, and in truth for many , they may be.

If you expect to ever get ahead simply by working, you should really just forget about it. Employers won't pay most people in middle-average jobs/careers enough to really get ahead...... the reason for this is simply that they do not have too.

If you want to own a home you will need to find incomes beyond the 9-5 grind. Believe it or not there are a lot of oppurtunities out there. I have a friend that started buying and reselling stuff on e-bay in 2004 just to make a little extra cash. Today it is his full-time "job", he is his own boss, he does whatever he wants whenever he wants and while I dunno exactly what he is making, I do know that in the past 2 years he has bought 2 new cars a BIG house in a nicer neighborhood and is dating an obviously high-maintenance woman from the city.

Whats the point of that, right? Who cares that someone else "got lucky" and made a lot of money on e-bay?

The point is he recognized that he needed more income and found something out of the box he could do. You will prolly have to look. You prolly have friends that are either investing in something or looking for someone to invest in something.....

In todays economy there has to be a lot of "have-nots" in order for the "haves" to flourish. Take advantage of that.

I was a Plumber by trade for nearly 10 years. I had a reasonably comfortable middle-class income, and I was content. After awhile I wanted more than I had. I knew that continuing to do what I was doing would not take me where iI wanted to be, so I realized I had to do something else.

I started a weekend gutter cleaning service and I advertised in local papers and on grocery store billboards in choice neighborhoods. I would charge 99$ to clear gutters on most homes, and I was getting more calls than I could handle. I hired 3 people to go and handle the calls I was getting both on the weekends and during the week and my income more than tripled almost overnight. As seasons changed so did peoples needs. Rather than just putting the buisness away untill next fall, I hired more people and expanded into landscaping, snow removal, dryer maintenance, flue cleaning, etc etc.....

I realized that a lot of my customers were the same people regardless o the season, and i realized they considered me to be more of an "odd-jobber" than anything else, so I didn't want to look very proffessional, I was charging a LOT less than the other companies that serviced the area and that was not only my best advertising, but it allowed me to keep a minimum of insurance and also meant that I did not WANT to use the newest, best looking equiptment. My overhead remained very low. I stopped working as a plumber alotogether ( except for the "side-jobs" that customers from the new business kept throwing at me)

After awhile I had a thriving business, and I decided to up the ante and invest in some newer-better equiptment, to purchase trucks for my employees and to logo them. I placed adds in the Yellow pages instead of the local papers and I had uniforms designed and tailored.

Pretty soon the whole things started to feel so much like work that I decided to make another change , and I sold the business and retired at 32.

Now I own a small comic-book store which makes a fantastic profit by buying used video games and then reselling or renting them for way more than I paid and way less than the store charges. I also dabble in e-commerce. I own 2 homes and I am happy and comfy.

I never would have gotten here had I stayed a plumber. You have to look for, find and make your own oppurtunities......

Otherwise you can rent from someone else who has already done so ~,o

Answer 2

I felt that way about 13 years ago. I was in my 40s, divorced with 2 kids, earning chump change, and looking at houses I couldn't really afford that needed a lot of work and still only had 1 bathroom. Then I found a townhouse, with 2 bathrooms, a small yard, a full basement...everything I was looking for in pretty good shape for about $30000 less than a disaster of a house.

Maybe a condo wouldn't work with 4 kids, but take a look. They do tend to be cheaper here in the states, but I have to admit I have no idea about housing prices in Australia.

Answer 3

No not at all. You have a home, just not one you own. Better to be renting and be able to afford what your child needs than have a own a home and be afraid of the losing it. Home ownership does not always make the best financial sense all the time. Sometimes saving the money that would go into repairs and upkeep can really help a family with all the other financial desires they have, and in your case that sounds like having children.

Answer 4

without more information on income, etc, it's hard to give suggestions.

however, from experience, i find that most people want to much right away. they want the large house on a large lot with granite, etc.

i suggest that you start with a townhouse or condo or small house. keep it for 5 years and then move up to the next stage and so forth. soon you will have the large house, etc.

if you are low income, see if the state or county government has low income housing programs. in Montgomery County, MD, there are MPDU (google this). Every builder has to set aside a % of new homes for MPDU's. These are under market priced homes in great areas. The county then offers low interest rates and low down payments.

No matter what, talk with a lender and see what they can do. If it's bad credit, fix it. If it's income, get a part time job.

Answer 5

Owning your own home is not all peaches and cream. You have to do maintenance on it, pay the rates, pay the mortgage and this can take out quite a large percentage of your wage, and take years to pay off. When you pay off your mortgage you are basically only paying mainly interest for some years, before you eventually pay off the principal. I sometimes think renting is a much more affordable proposition. When we were young, we rented a place which was as cheap as we could get but still liveable in and saved as much as we could. This is very hard with children, so I think that you should save 10% of your wage every week if you can, if not then 5%, but at least strive to save a certain amount every week (set the amount yourselves with a realistic amount in mind), but save this every week and put it into the best interest-paying account you can find. It will mount up. You could even add a bit more if you have extra in any one week, but try not to take any out once you have it going. Before you buy anything, ask yourself if you really need it, and then evaluate how many hours you or your partner have had to work to get this money, and it might turn you off buying it. You can save money if you really want to and work at it.

Answer 6

I'm 44, divorced with 1 grown son and 3 granddaughters. It seems next to impossible for either him or me to own our own home.

Answer 7

thing will work out.
you need a big break good luck and you are in my prayers.