Still living at home with your parents ? your not alone

"Nearly two million working young adults aged between 20 and 34 years old in England are still living with their parents according to Shelter, which is urging stronger action to help the ''clipped wing generation'' fly the nest. The charity said data it has taken from the Census shows that there are 1.97 million people in this age group in England who are still living with their parents, accounting for one quarter of all young adults in employment. A survey commissioned by the charity also found that nearly half (48%) of 250 young adults who live with their parents said they do so because they cannot afford to rent or buy their own home. Shelter said its analysis of the Census data uncovered several areas where the proportion of adult children living with their parents is much higher. It named nation's ''clipped wing'' hotspots as Castle Point in Essex where 45% of working 20- to 34-year-olds live with their parents; Knowsley in Merseyside where the figure is 42%; and Solihull where 38% of young working adults still live in the home they grew up in. " I too can add myself to this ever growing list. The rental prices in East Hertfordshire are reidiculous and someone who only works part time with his wages topped up a little by working tax credits paying a rent of 500 pounds a month upwards is simply not a option i can afford. I am blind as some of you may or may not know and i would love to further my independence by gaining my own place. But this is just not possible. If renting is almost impossible dont even think about owning your own place either. I am 26 and have very little chance of getting on the so called propety ladder. help to buy and schemes like these are helpful to some but for many they make no difference at all. "Shelter highlighted the case of a 32-year-old woman named Sarah who lives with her parents in the family home in Croydon. She works in online advertising, but has been living on and off with her parents for the past 10 years while trying to save for a deposit. Sarah said: ''I'm trying really hard to save up and get my own place but today's rollercoaster house prices mean the goal posts keep moving. ''If I move out now the reality is I'll be stuck paying expensive rents for the rest of my life. I know I'm lucky to have a job and somewhere to live, but the thought that I'm going to be living like a teenager into my late 30s or even 40s is really disheartening.'' Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: ''The 'clipped wing generation' are finding themselves with no choice but to remain living with mum and dad well into adulthood, as they struggle to find a home of their own... ''Rather than pumping more money into schemes like Help to Buy, we need bolder action that will meet the demand for affordable homes and not inflate prices further. ''From helping small local builders find the finance they need, to investing in a new generation of part rent, part buy homes, the solutions to our housing shortage are there for the taking. " with extracts from an article in todays Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/houseprices/10996825/Clipped-wing-generation-still-live-with-mum-and-dad.html

Many families in Eastern England one pay cheque away from loosing their homes

HUNDREDS of thousands of families with children in the East of England could not pay their rent or mortgage for more than a month if they lost their job, new figures from Shelter reveal today (Monday, April 14). The YouGov survey of working adults who pay rent or a mortgage found that with little or no savings to fall back on, 45% of all working families in the East could be just one pay cheque away from losing their home. The research also found that in the east of the country, a quarter of all families face the nightmare scenario of immediately being unable to afford their home if they lost their income. More than 200,000 families (26%) said that if they lost their job this month and could not get another one straight away, they would not be able to make their next rent or mortgage payment from their savings. Kate Murray lives with her five year old daughter and disabled mother. She lost her job as a business manager with only three days’ notice when the company she worked for went bankrupt in October 2013. Kate said: “Before my employer went bankrupt they hadn’t been paying me properly for a while, so I’d started to fall behind on my mortgage. Then I got the letter through the door saying they wanted to take my house back. I was petrified. It’s not the best house but at least it’s our house. I thought, what am I going to do? How am I going to tell my daughter and my mum that we have to move out?” The latest government figures on savings mirror Shelter’s research, revealing that there are 15m working age adults in the UK with no savings at all. The charity’s findings showed that 3.8m working families from across the UK could not pay their rent or mortgage from their savings for more than a month if they lost their job, and 2.4m of these families have no savings to fall back on at all. Liz Clare, who is a helpline advisor at Shelter, said: “This research highlights the financial knife-edge that millions of us now find ourselves on – living month to month, pay cheque to pay cheque. Every day we see the proof that just one piece of bad luck, like a sudden job loss or illness, could tip any of us into a spiral that puts the family home at risk. “Sky-high housing costs and stagnating wages mean that saving is becoming a thing of the past for many people. Most of us simply don’t have enough money in the bank that we can rely on for long enough to get back on our feet. We need better government support to give families the short-term help they need to keep their homes if they fall on hard times. Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: “Finding another job is hard enough, but without a stable place to live it’s almost impossible. No matter how hard ordinary families work, in today’s ‘knife-edge nation’ any drop in income can all too quickly put their home at serious risk. The government must make sure the safety net is strong enough to stop families falling through the gaps, and going through the tragedy of losing their homes.” Anyone who is worried about losing their home can contact Shelter for free, independent advice. Visit www.shelter.org.uk/advice or call the helpline on 0808 800 4444. Written bySINEAD HOLLAND http://www.hertsandessexobserver.co.uk/News/Bishops-Stortford/Families-in-the-East-of-England-one-pay-cheque-away-from-losing-homes-20140414055855.htm?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Why help to buy won’t help most people

This week the governments help to buy scheme is launched across the UK how this will go is unclear but we can be sure this wont benefit most ordinary people. The scheme which offers would-be homebuyers interest-free loans of up to 20 per cent of the cost of a newly built property (up to a value of £600,000) and requires a deposit of just 5 per cent. Announcing Help to Buy in his recent Budget, the Chancellor George Osborne said the deposits now required for mortgages have put homeownership beyond the reach of those who can't get help from their parents. His Help to Buy solution has two parts. First is the shared equity loan where the government will lend up to 20% of the cost of a new-build property to anyone who has raised a 5% deposit themselves. The loan is interest-free for five years and can be repaid at any time, or when the buyer sells the house. With the government's 20% and your 5%, you'll get access to the more attractive mortgage rates afforded to those with a 25% deposit to put down. This kind of help was previously only available to first-time buyers with family incomes below £60,000 under the NewBuy scheme, but Help to Buy will be available to anyone who wants to buy a new home, on any income. The scheme only applies to properties worth less than £600,000, but the Chancellor says this covers more than 90% of all homes. The second part of the government's promise is its Mortgage Guarantee, which will be offered to anyone who wants to buy a home - existing or new-build - but can't afford the deposit. It will be open to all homeowners, subject to the usual checks, and the same property value limit of £600,000 will apply. So would this help people like me who are struggling to afford to move to and get my own place? Probably not as I don’t have the cash behind me to do this plus rents age still far too high in the area I live in. “Young people today haven’t got a chance of buying a house at a reasonable price, even with rock-bottom interest rates. The Nationwide Building Society data shows that the average first-time buyer in London is paying over 50 per cent of their take-home pay in mortgage payments – and that is when interest rates are close to zero.” Homeless charity Shelter and PricedOut - a campaign group for first-time buyers and owner-occupiers - however, are among those opposed to the help to buy scheme. Shelter says the money would be better spent building more homes. Chief executive Campbell Robb said: "This Budget was a huge missed opportunity to build enough homes to make sure our children will have a stable and affordable place of their own. Helping a small number of first-time buyers today will do little to meet the aspirations of young families tomorrow." PricedOut spokesperson Duncan Stott said: "Pumping more money into a housing market with chronic under-supply has one sure-fire outcome: pushing up house prices. At best it may help a small number of new buyers, but it will mean housing becomes more expensive for all those that follow." Only a mass council housing programme can start to help the housing crisis which is getting worse by the month. Coupled with a capping of rents to a fair level too will help hugely too.