How old were you when you bought your first home? My Parents were under 20. I was in my early 20’s. My sister was in her mid 20’s. Today though the average age of a first-time buyer is 32. What is concerning is that 1 in 4 first-time buyers are actually aged between 35-44 and with rising house prices it is only set to get worse.
A recent survey by English Housing shows that 47% of mortgages taken out by first-time buyers have a mortgage term of 30 years or more. This means many of these buyers will still have a mortgage past retirement age.
If you look at the above graph, you can see that almost 50% of homeowners, will be paying their mortgage past the age of 65 and even more worryingly we can see that a small proportion of mortgage borrowers will be paying their mortgage past the age of 75. Of course, as their salaries increase they may opt to make overpayments. They may inherit money from their family which will help them out or it could mean in the future that the number of people who own their property outright may well start to decline.
If you would like to chat about the Lancaster and Morecambe Housing Market ( which is still very affordable compared to other parts of the UK ) please get in touch. My name is Michelle Gallagher. You can call us on 01524 843322 or email me at michelle@jdg.co.uk
Thanks for reading
Michelle