Staying put vs. selling up

Harry_Powell

Good luck with the move and with the new job.

garvbuck

To be honest, the mistake they made was in buying a house in the first place when their careers were in such a state of flux. My girlfriend and I have rented for a long time, partly because we were waiting for house prices to fall, but mainly because we enjoy the flexibility renting gives to our career mobility.[/QUOTE]

Absolutely - if anybody else is reading this in the same position, don't take the advice of friends and family who say getting onto the ladder as early as possible is always the right move!

StuartGMC

House prices in Cambridge itself usually buck the trend compared to those of us living in the commuter region around it. That's why you've seen such a small drop in valuation because demand for properties has tended to remain buoyant. Think long and hard before selling up as you may find Cambridge recovers faster than Norwich so you can sell once in positive territory and use the gain to fund deposit in Norwich. Also typically prices in Cambridge rise more quickly once the market picks up.

If you aren't starting until Sept 2010 then I would assume you won't need to move until then in reality unless OH can get a job quickly for the new academic year this Sept. Is it more likely he'll get a post starting at the same time?

I agree the A11 is a slow road in places but I think they've announced the final section for dual-carriageway now? Alternatively what about the train service, about an hour each way I think and you could use that time to do paperwork. As you'll be commuting away from London I would assume you are "guaranteed" a seat too?

It seems you have the options to take it a step at a time as it is viable to commute by rail so don't (this time) rush into decisions.

In the meantime, get your household budget pinned down with OH, start saving money at the start of every month, by Sept 2010 you can easily cover the shortfall on the mortgage (OP too to benefit) and your finances may be much more healthy. I'll PM you too about spreadsheet.

garvbuck

Thanks for that - I think you're right. We might as well make cheap improvements to our home to make sure it's in tip-top condition when we do sell up (a lick of paint, a new dining table as ours is falling apart, new soft furnishings etc.), and just save as much as possible. We're also thinking of putting it on the market at £210k, just in case - you don't ask if you don't get! But otherwise we'll just hold tight, I think.

nancy711

House prices are moving up again but I think this might be a bit of a false dawn. Unemployment figures still have a long way to go before they level out. We've a long way from climbing out of the economic pit.

But on saying that, long before the credit crunch hit, the UK was short of houses which was part of the reason why house prices had risen so much. At the moment, with so many construiction firms struggling, we must be even further away from having enough homes for everyone. So I wouldn't be surprised to see prices shooting up extremely quickly when the light at the end of the credit crunch tunnel comes into view.