Interest rates up 0.5%!

[A Quiet Monkfish]

That's a silly remark
Houses were cheaper but so were wages lower and then you could only borrow 2.5 x salary for a mortage, plus interest rates were a lot higher. Interest rates of 11% were not unusual.
As an example when I got married in 1972 I had the opportunity to buy a 4 bedroom house for just over £10,000.00 but although I was on a good wages I couldn't afford the repayments. That same house today is worth over £1/4 million.
So people then were using a much larger percentage of their disposable income to buy a house than you have ever experienced. But as you have never known any difference you expect it to last for ever. It doesn't sadly. We all wish it would.

In 1990 Interest rates were 15%. We were paying near 17% - plus an endowment[remember those], which was taking up over half our combined salaries - something like £1000 per month.

[xsnaggle]

In 1990 Interest rates were 15%. We were paying near 17% - plus an endowment[remember those], which was taking up over half our combined salaries - something like £1000 per month.

In addition to this income tax basic rate was 33% in 1978 reducing to 30% in '79 and allowances were a couple of grand a year depending on how many kids you had.

[blue matt]

In 1990 Interest rates were 15%. We were paying near 17% - plus an endowment[remember those], which was taking up over half our combined salaries - something like £1000 per month.

I was working for the council at the time, working the same van with a guy, he couldnt afford to sell his house ( negative equity ) and used to every Friday ( pay day ) borrow £50 from me, would pay it back over the week and then go again, I asked him where the extra money was coming from in bits and pieces, he said " selling stuff , maybe a few hours doing private work "

we have had it good for a long time, I feel almost spoilt by the low interest rates for some long