Mitchy260

It tells you how many jobs were analysed aswell. In all for the UK, just a tad under 30m analysed so i would say the data is pretty good.


I believe the median average is around £21k but this is for both PT and FT workers and both male and female.

I would say £21k was a pretty basic wage that everyone should be capable of earning, my brother is a postman, no skills, qualifications needed and earns around £23k so it should be in the realms of every Tom Dick and Harry

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

No disprespect but thats a very closed mind opinion to me. I would welcome you to come visit the area I live in, talk to the locals (even professionals) and make a comment like "£21k is within the realms of every Tom, Dick and Harry". You would get laughed out of town, unless ofcourse you are incinuating the low earners get 2 full time jobs?

Sorry, but I lol'd at that comment, and it's certainly not from a lack of motivation on my part.

hodgy0_2

its all irrelevant anyway, because when pressure builds up in the housing market all the "smart" people working in the finance industry will work out ways to get around any restrictions on lending

thats how we got here in the first place

stuart n

I have an HND in electronic engineering and I don't earn £23K, maybe I should have become a postie rather than study hard!

stuart n

BTW, I'm currently waiting for a decision on a mortgage that equates to 2.5 times our combined income, we're putting down 20% as a deposit
I'm sure criminals get asked fewer questions than me and my girlfriend have over the last 2 weeks!

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

The usual thinking.

I agree with this aspect of article:

'While three to 3.5 times income was the norm 20 years ago when mortgage rates were frequently well into double figures and it was necessary to budget for rates up to about 15%, in a low interest rate environment a higher level of borrowing is clearly more affordable"

There will be chaos if it is implimented as per the article

TX.

cster

As long as people think they can make money buying a house, some will overstretch themselves because they are greedy.
When their interest goes up or their income goes down, they will come unstuck.
I guess it is called gambling.
TBH it is very difficult for the government to legislate on this one.
I do recall G Brown coming up with the idea of 100 year mortgages a few years back to make houses more affordable!
That is when the scales fell from my eyes and I realised the man is an idiot.

FlightMan

It cracks me up how many people say that 3.5x is not applicable now as interest rates are much lower than when 3.5x was the norm.

So those people who have borrowed at 5x salary have thought about how they'd cope if rates went up to 10% haven't they?

Because I don't see any legislation that says rates will always and forever be low.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, and I bet he works 60hrs+ a week to achieve that. My father-in-law used to work for the royal mail for 30 years and he still had to work ****e loads of hours to bring home anywhere near that figure.

Not really comparable to the normal 37.5 hour week is it?

As for me, I must be mr average as I am on £23K plus bonus. My wife works for the police and our mortgage is currently 2.82 x our combined income.