How old were you when you got your first mortgage ?

We turned 20 in the May and June, and the house purchase went through the week before our wedding at the start of August!
We'd saved all my salary for the previous six months to raise £500 for the 10% deposit 😁

The house was a little 2-bed terrace in Coventry with a tiny kitchen and a downstairs bathroom.
Our three children were all born (in hospital) there.
Happy days 😊

I've never had one - I inherited the family home. My son on the other hand bought his first house when he was 18 and his second when he was 21, just a few years ago.

We bought with my in-laws I was 20 my husband 21. We shared the house and then bought our own when I was 29. It was a doer upper in a right state but my then husband made a good job of the renovations.

It was 1969. We were both 25 and the building society took into account half my income. In fact we decided how much we could afford to borrow and it was less than the building society was prepared to lend us. They offered £7,000, we decided on £5750. The interest rate was around 7.5% and our monthly payment was approximately £57

We bought a brand new 3 storey terrace house in a new town in Berkshire. It had 3 bedrooms on the second floor, big living room and tiny kitchen on the first floor and a garage with a room behind it that could be used as a bedroom/study/garden room on the ground floor.

I think I was about 24ish, ex husband three years older, we were lucky he was working for a big American bank, advantageous 3% mortgage rate for staff, I can't remember what interest rate everyone else was on but it was a lot more than that in the late '70s. It was lovely to go from a rented, not ideal flat, to a modern house, we were ecstatic to have our first washing machine installed. it was my pride and joy, so much so, I actually wanted it in the kitchen so I could look at the washing going round and round when it was on, bliss after weekly trips to the launderette and a certain amount of hand washing. It was actually in a small utility room which I didn't see the point of then, but do now!. The 40 something couple who sold us the house were rather sniffy about "youngsters" like us buying straight into a 3 bedroomed house, rather than a starter flat and in a roundabout way they told us so! like it was any of their business

We were 19 and 23 in ‘69. No chance of a council place like my friends who had children as soon as they were married. We bought a new house with nearly 100% mortgage, a mortgage that was fiddled, we were so naïve. We had no life just debt. They say when poverty comes through the window love goes out the door.

I was 16 (soon 17). He was 18.

We still live in that home, we've not considered moving.

We married at 18, lived in a flat for a year and got a mortgage at 19. It was a tiny terraced house and I felt like a queen we stayed until we were 23 when our first child was born. All this enabled us to be mortgage free before we were fifty. Sadly that will be almost impossible for today’s young people.

I was 23 and DH the same age and we bought a brand new dormer bungalow. It was my pride and joy and we had a garden where my children could play. Only had a small yard in our rented house

I was 19 he was 22. We bought a one bed flat off plan with a £20 deposit. The rest was mortgaged at an extortionate interest rate. We had to get furniture on HP too.

I was 26, husband 27, and we had 2 small children. It was a council mortgage, and for £9600 in 1985. We had a loan to fit central heating and new doors. We sold it in 1991 for £33000

DH was 25 and I was 22 just qualified as a nurse so my salary was infinitesimal , DH wasn’t long qualified either as a building engineer . But we managed to scrape a small deposit together and got mortgage in 1972 for a new flat for 11,000. We stayed until 1974 when our daughter was born and bought another very large older build flat . In 1980 with 6 year old and a 2 year old, we bought the house I’m in still now. It was very dilapidated and we struggled with the high interest rates but managed to gradually do it up. My little grandchildren will never be able to buy a place for years unless I have shuffled off this world without paying a fortune in care fees !

I was 22, now ex was 25. New 2 bedroom flat with garage. It was £15000. It was a fortune to us then, mortgage interest rate was about 17%. Sold it 5 years later for £19000, bought semi with large gardens for £25000. No intention of moving again till I'm going out in a box!

20, ex husb was 27. Second mortgage I was 25. Third and in my name only, 41.

I wa 19, my DH was 21. We'd been in a rented flat for a year and had saved very hard. The house was £3, 250 in 1968.

It wasn't a great buy but it suited us at the time. It was up a flight of steps which were a nightmare with the pram when my son was born, and built on a hill. The back garden was also up steps and sloped upwards. I've never bought on a hill since. We learned a lot from that place, what to avoid and what to prioritise.

Years later and we heard that it had experienced subsidence but we were in a village 12 miles away by then, where there was a lot less traffic/fumes. It was a better place to bring up a young family.

I was 23 but he was 34. The place was pretty derelict, with a beautiful garden. It was all we could afford but we felt very lucky to have it. I cooked on a camping stove, on the landing, while we gutted the kitchen, as nobody would want to have food in there. Washing up was done in a bowl in the bath!

I was 24 and dh was 27. We bought a detached 3 bed with garage 4 year old house for £6,500 and borrowed £500 for the deposit. For 6 months we had no carpet and some donated basic furniture. My fridge was ancient, it was 25 years old and had been my granny's and then my mother's. The thermostat was wonky and used to freeze some foods. No washing machine for 3 years. Rented our cooker off the Electric Board as you could do in those days. We couldn't afford any heating oil and having moved in March I was ironing with my coat on. Just a coal fire and it took a week to get coal delivered. The old sofa was pulled up to within about 4 feet from the heat. We never felt hard done by.

We were there for 22 years.

22 and 25. But we had nothing, zilch to put in the house and lived VERY frugally.

I was 22, he was 23 and we bought a brand new 3 bed end terrace for £5340 with the £500 deposit a kind gift from my parents. We sold it five years later for £12500. It was 1976 and I worked for a bank which was just granting mortgages to women. I could have borrowed more than we needed but on a lesser house…this one was above my station!! Abbey National was more accommodating.

Why are we so fixated on home ownership when in most of Europe renting is normal, they don’t even think about buying houses or flats.
We got our mortgages earlier because most people in the 1960s left school at 15 or 16 and married much earlier than now. By the time some of our children start work we could have been working full time for up to 10 years. None other than the wealthy bought alone. two salaries were always needed and mortgage Interest rates were much higher than now. Up to 17%. Never less than 10%.
We lived frugally; parents neither offered nor were expected to help. We ate the cheapest food, all our furniture other than our bed was second hand and gratefully received. We rarely went out or treated ourselves and it was as much a financial burden then as it is now. We worked and saved hard for the deposit before I was able to give up work to begin our family 8 years later.
I know there are exceptions but my experience of young adults today is they are in the main not prepared to go without, expensive gadgets, clothes, social life and holidays are all seen as essentials not luxuries.
They finish studies in their early / mid 20s, then see the world fir a year or more before finally getting a job and finding a partner, so it’s no surprise they are in their 30 s when they settle down and want to buy a home.

I was 22, hubby almost 22, we`d been married for 2 years and 5 months, with 2 littlies.

I was 18 and DH was 21. An absolutely tiny 1 bed Barratt house with no heating and just a small 2 bar heater. Looking back I don't know how we did it ..my monthly salary paid the mortgage and some bills and his weekly wage paid the rest and food etc but if we ran out of money in the week we ate whatever was in the cupboard until pay day!
Every thing we had was second hand.
We coped somehow but sadly he died in an accident 5 years later at just 26.

Gosh how young you all were I was 42

silverlining:
Why are we so fixated on home ownership when in most of Europe renting is normal, they don’t even think about buying houses or flats.

I'm not sure but I think it comes around to biting us on the bums when we change jobs or retire (and think about downsizing). It's such a mammoth task to uproot yourself and move!

I was 26 and my husband was 30 when we bought our house. We had been living in a rented flat until then and saved every penny we had for a deposit. We had no furniture when we bought the house but lots of boxes for seating etc. Everything we gradually bought was second hand.
It seemed like fun at first, being that poor, but the novelty soon wore off.