My house hasn't appreciated in value in 12 years
Discussion
I’ve had my house for 12 years, and according to Zoopla, its value has increased 84% in that time.
This sounds fantastic, only I keep a general ledger for everything I have spent on my house, and it tells a different story.
When I factor in expenses like legal fees, mortgage interest (despite paying it off within nine years), and various home improvements, the total outlay matches its current valuation.
If I include the countless hours and resources I've poured into DIY projects, then I'm in negative equity. I certainly haven’t done anything unusual or been particularly expensive either.
My circumstances can’t be unique, but they have left me a bit conflicted.
On the one hand, I have a nice house to live in that’s been decorated to my taste, and it sure as hell beats renting. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that I have made a financial mistake by not buying a property that, while not cutting-edge, necessitated significant expenditure.
I’m curious: Are a lot of people in this position? Is the notion that you’ll always turn a profit on a house wrong? Should I care?
This sounds fantastic, only I keep a general ledger for everything I have spent on my house, and it tells a different story.
When I factor in expenses like legal fees, mortgage interest (despite paying it off within nine years), and various home improvements, the total outlay matches its current valuation.
If I include the countless hours and resources I've poured into DIY projects, then I'm in negative equity. I certainly haven’t done anything unusual or been particularly expensive either.
My circumstances can’t be unique, but they have left me a bit conflicted.
On the one hand, I have a nice house to live in that’s been decorated to my taste, and it sure as hell beats renting. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that I have made a financial mistake by not buying a property that, while not cutting-edge, necessitated significant expenditure.
I’m curious: Are a lot of people in this position? Is the notion that you’ll always turn a profit on a house wrong? Should I care?
Alex Z said:
Deduct the amount you’d have spent on rent in the meantime from your calculations and report back.
I get that, it’s more the fact the money I’ve spent on home improvements you never get back.It’ll make the house easier to sell in future but investment is the wrong word. It’s a bit like ordering a brand new car with options, I suppose.
fat80b said:
Good thread.
There’s an obsession in this country about how high house prices are, but it doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny.
I’ve always thought that it’s one of those media induced madnesses where everyone wants to believe that their house price will make them rich because they “want it to be true” so are prepared to ignore the data….
I.e, Everywhere you look there are articles saying that house prices are too high and have been rising forever but if you actually look at the numbers and factor in inflation, they’ve barely risen at all in the last 25 years which is when lots of us here probably first bought?
The graph on https://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/indices-nationwi... clearly shows that they haven’t risen for 20 odd years.
I don’t know why people let themselves believe that house prices were going up when the (inflation adjusted) data doesn’t show it.
And if you consider the cost of maintenance etc, just as the op does it’s not such a great investment at all.
That said, I subscribe to the “house prices don’t really matter” philosophy. The real value of a house is the fact that once you’ve paid off your mortgage you get to live in it for another 30 years rent free at which it point doesn’t matter if it costs twice as much to begin with because it’s still cheap overall
This is exactly what I am getting at.There’s an obsession in this country about how high house prices are, but it doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny.
I’ve always thought that it’s one of those media induced madnesses where everyone wants to believe that their house price will make them rich because they “want it to be true” so are prepared to ignore the data….
I.e, Everywhere you look there are articles saying that house prices are too high and have been rising forever but if you actually look at the numbers and factor in inflation, they’ve barely risen at all in the last 25 years which is when lots of us here probably first bought?
The graph on https://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/indices-nationwi... clearly shows that they haven’t risen for 20 odd years.
I don’t know why people let themselves believe that house prices were going up when the (inflation adjusted) data doesn’t show it.
And if you consider the cost of maintenance etc, just as the op does it’s not such a great investment at all.
That said, I subscribe to the “house prices don’t really matter” philosophy. The real value of a house is the fact that once you’ve paid off your mortgage you get to live in it for another 30 years rent free at which it point doesn’t matter if it costs twice as much to begin with because it’s still cheap overall
The whole thing is disingenuous and a bit of a scam.
Sure, it's better than renting, but buying a house that already has more modern fittings and investing the difference in a global tracker is probably the better move.
tight fart said:
I’d say this thread qualifies as one of the most stupid I’ve seen.
That's quite an achievement, thank you!JackJarvis said:
This thread is like the retirement ones, seems to only exist to facilitate the humble brag.
No idea how you came to that conclusion, did you miss the point where I said I am basically in negative equity? Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff