General Chat

The housing problem wasn't as bad in the 1960's as it is now.

One thing people could do then, that they can't do now, was squat in abandoned/long term empty houses.
If the Tories hadn't made it illegal, before allowing foreign investors to buy up properties (and leave them empty), there would be fewer people living on the streets.
In 2015, there were 610,123 empty homes in England, according to the government. Of these, 205,821 have been unoccupied for six months or more, the official definition of "long-term" emptiness.

We bought the 3 bed end of terrace house we still live in in 1969 and paid £2650 for it. The deposit was £150. We managed to cut a 25 year mortgage down to 16 years simply by leaving the payments the same on the few occasions when the interest rate went down. It made a real difference to the amount of interest overall that you paid.

The kids pay nearly as much for a couple of mobiles these days!!

Kath. x

What would £499 equate to in today's Bitcoins? :-S

A two-bed terraced house was £1,000 in the County Durham village my sis-in-law moved to in 1966.

the mini was £499 when it was launched in 1959. The typical cost of a small car - mini, Anglia, moggie, Minx, 1100 - in the early to mid 1960s was well over £ 600.British built cars were very unreliable, and sure to rust through well short of 10 years. They were also very slow and if not had poor brakes. Half the drivers had never taken a test and control of drink driving was a novel concept. Despite the bitter winters of 1947 and 1962 heaters were an optional extra.

by 1964 the uk average house price was over £ 3000. My old man bought a house in Friars Cliff, Christchurch in 1964 which cost him over £ 5000. There were wide regional variations though. Basics such as bathrooms, central heating and insulation were uncommon. Many houses had outside wc and in parts of Leicester and Nottingham "night soil" was still removed by lorry. Domestic electrics were poorly installed and a major cause of fires along with smoking.

Typical earnings were £ 20-30 per week though women got around 30% less. Tax on higher incomes, over £3000 was dire especially for single people.

A color TV in 1969 was over £ 600. Beer about 2s pint and wine over £2 / bottle.

The housing problem was just as bad as now but Ken Loach got time on the TV. Now he is banned.

There never were any good old days then or now.

I believe my parents paid £600 for a detached 3 bedroomed house in the New Forest, in 1967.
The deposit/a lot of the cost came from my dad's termination payment, after 25 years in the RAF.
I know they'd paid off the mortgage by 1972, had put in central heating and sold it for £3000 - £4000.
They then bought (cash) a 2 bedroomed terraced house in Southampton for my sister and I to live in, before both moving to Saudi.

A more than healthy deposit on buying a home.

Up north it probably paid for a whole one!

Chris

A new motor car

The adverts on tv today are about how you can buy furniture (settee) and the like for £499 so we wondered what could be bought for that money in the early 60s if you were lucky enough to have that much money in your wallet. :-D