Home financing ever possible? Probably not!

Hello and many greetings from the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis :)
What I always wonder about the argument "soon no one will be able to afford this anymore" is the following:
who then lives in the houses in our neighborhood??

If I now roughly simplify and say "new single-family homes were built, perhaps some single-family homes were also demolished in favor of multi-family house constructions," then I would have the same number of single-family houses in the region. Effectively, I think more were built than demolished, but let me assume a constant number in my thought:
who lived in these houses before and who lives there now? I think on average it’s the same population and income groups, right? The model "foreign investor buys single-family house and rents it out" I have not encountered in large numbers so far.
What of course has an effect are the incoming people to the region, i.e. people with possibly well-paid office jobs moving here, and lower-paid craftsmen then have the short end of the stick, I see that too. Plus the costs of living overall consume a larger share of household income, which should not only be the case for home ownership in ascending regions.
So this "no one can afford this" has at least not led to any vacancy here with us so far.

To the OP:
yes, those of us who already live in our own home have it easy to say. Nevertheless, what probably irritates us is the entitlement attitude that says "I feel like I have a claim to:
- with exactly my income situation
- with exactly the equity I have built up so far
- a house according to standards defined by me (not wishes! Each of us had to make compromises when building a house, no one was able to build exactly their dream house. So in short: "I think I must be able to build 150 sqm, even if my wish was 200 sqm")
- exactly in my region
- to have it fully paid off by the end of my working life"

Unfortunately, that is not the case; the saying about privilege is unfortunately not true, and the prerequisites for this are regionally different.

The topic of the value of the houses offered has already been addressed by enough people, that is market economy. Which good that is not affordable to the broad population has the price you consider right? A Mercedes, a Porsche, a Ferrari?
The decision "this is worth it TO ME" always lies with you, but don’t expect your valuation to be shared by anyone else but yourself.

If you want a house, you will have to make compromises at one or more of the above points, for better or worse.
And also from me on the topic of "foreclosure": if you find it immoral to participate in it (which would also mean not taking advantage of the same "forced situation" when someone sells for economic reasons but it has not yet come to foreclosure), what would be your suggestion in such situations, who would have to act how if no buyers were found?

Hello and many greetings from the Rhein-Sieg district :)

Hello Vrumfondel,

many greetings back!

You ask me who owns all the houses in our neighborhood.
So first of all I can say that in the last 15 years I have lived in 2 rental properties (both in the Rhein-Sieg district). The first property belongs to a person who is a multiple millionaire and the current one also belongs to a person who is well off (whether this person is a millionaire I do not know, but I assume so for various reasons).

Then it is so that there are indeed some middle-class families living in the neighborhood who have bought their house, but 10-15 years ago (at a price of around 100,000€). I personally don't know anyone around here who owns a house and only bought it last year or two years ago.

Oh yes, the question has been raised several times here about what I do with our money, and I think I have answered this several times already, but gladly again: Money that is left over every month is, of course, saved and put aside. We are not people who spend their money "wastefully". Additionally, we do not have a car and we also do not take expensive vacations anywhere.
Yes, we work, earn money, save – that is not the point, but the high purchase price plus the many additional purchase costs that come with it, such as broker fees, real estate transfer tax (why does this exist at all when you buy your first home – question to the politicians), and notary fees.
By the way, it is true that in our district there are houses priced at 250,000€. But they are all also very much in need of renovation, where depending on the property you could certainly get an additional 150,000€ loan from the bank.

what would your suggestion be in such situations, who should act and how if no buyers could be found?

I have a friend who lives further away (another federal state) and lost his house some years ago. The reason was that his marriage broke down and the joint monthly installment could no longer be managed. His request to the bank whether the installment could simply be reduced and he could stay in the house was not accepted by the bank. Sure, one could now say "serves him right" because the risk was not factored in. However, the bank is not obliged to act like that, but still insisted on the house at all costs! Luckily, he did not witness the foreclosure himself and was already out a year before. Nevertheless, he then still had to declare insolvency.
What I want to say is: it actually does not have to come to foreclosures if banks are willing to make compromises. It is simply greed that leads to such things and is just not necessary! One gets the impression that banks even want you to eventually be unable to pay off the mortgage so that they can snatch the property for themselves.

I want to say again that I am somewhat irritated because I have the impression that I am generally being accused of having an entitlement mentality.
It is acted as if every person who criticizes the real estate market wants a dream house handed over to them.

But why do people accept such conditions and attack people like me who criticize these grievances instead of the conditions that are actually responsible for them? When I say that it is unfair that 10 years ago you could get a house on our street for 100,000€ and now you cannot anymore, it is attributed to personal inability instead of questioning why real estate is so expensive and how it came about in recent years.

I know, it may not help me in the end and the realities are what they are, regardless of what is written here.
I also do not want to rule out that in one or two years we might go into debt just to be able to buy. Only I have the feeling that it will potentially go wrong because there is simply no security.

I summarize: You are surprised in a house building forum that your point of view receives an increased echo of incomprehension. Or in other words: You are surprised that there are no vegetarians in a wolf pack? That’s exactly my kind of humor. I have a question, and it was already asked to you a few pages earlier: What is your task or your motive to throw such a fox into the henhouse here? Do you have the calendar week off before Christmas and wanted to troll nicely here? I can't see any other reason right now.

Hello DeepRed,

to be honest: Yes, I am surprised, because the interests of the people in this forum should actually all be the same (house building forum). The comparison with vegetarians in a wolf pack doesn't really fit here... Unless this were a pure property developer forum. But even then I would write exactly the same thing, only perhaps more clearly, because these people naturally bear more responsibility for the conditions than a small family who is simply looking for a house for themselves.

Yes, we work, earn money, save - that's not the point at all, but

Yes, that is exactly the point. You said you can’t afford your own home. But with your income and your savings rate you certainly can. You just DON’T WANT TO. The title of the thread should have been: “We DON’T WANT to pay that much for a house and think it’s stupid that we don’t get what we want.” With reserves, you could finance 450k and be done by retirement if you manage your 5,200k/month without children as you described above. No problem at all. You wanted to rant and ended up failing. Now you try to distract with “that’s not the point at all…” YES IT IS! Because YOU made it the point with this thread. You just don’t want to feed the co-earners of the house purchase (state/agent). Ok. But that’s a different argument.

That's right. It's about wanting, not being able.

I live in Munich, I'm also from here and I have everything here that matters to me. Friends, family, etc. And I CAN'T afford anything here with an income similar to yours from Hamburg. You can only dream of houses for 400k. But then that's how it is, and the rule is: Love it, Change it or Leave it. We chose the latter in the sense of "Accept the situation and don't cry about it afterwards." That's what I wish for you too. Complaining without acting, and even mental changes of direction are actions, is a huge energy thief...

By the way, it is true that in our district there are houses with a price of €250,000. However, all of them are also in need of major renovation, where you could definitely take out another €150,000 from the bank depending on the property.

And what is stopping you? You have the income for it. And a €250k house with €150k renovation is much cheaper than a new build.

Yes, we work, earn money, save - that is not even the point, but the high purchase price + the numerous additional purchase costs that come with it, such as the agent, property transfer tax (why does that even exist when you buy your first home - question to the politicians), as well as notary fees.

At €250k these costs are annoying but not decisive. The question of why you pay property transfer tax can be addressed to your local representative. Maybe also ask whether it’s not about time to abolish the sparkling wine tax since the imperial fleet hasn’t existed for a century anyway. The question why an agent is involved, just ask the seller.
For me, these are all lame excuses. With a purchase price of €250k you can expect additional costs of about €25k. Without property transfer tax it would be a good €10k. With that income, one should not let oneself be stopped from buying, because that is the difference between “the old bathroom still does the job” and “this absolutely needs to be new.”