Carry on renting or buy

timshaw

My wife, step daughter and myself are currently renting via a housing organisation and are paying a low rent off £280 pcm for a 2 bedroom.

We have toyed with the idea of having a child of our own so haved looked around for 3 bedroom. Unfortunately all the housing in our price range are a downgrade from our current rented property.

looking at the monthly for the mortgage plus the extra life insurance and buildings insurance we dont know if its worth us moving until we can afford something we really like.

The market is pretty full at the moment looking good, with prices coming down but no one knows what will happen to the market.

we've saved around 25k at the moment so could carry on saving a larger deposit. gaining a small amount of intrest versus the negative interest on our potential mortgage.

Should we move for the fact that we would actually own our own property but have something on a lesser level or stay in a nice house on a nice road with a property that we possibily wouldn't lose if either one of us lost our jobs but risk ever rising future prices

BitterAndTwisted

In the current economic climate you might be better off staying put and saving as much as you possible can with a view to buying in a couple of years. There appear to massive job-cuts on the near horizon and as you say should either of you lose your jobs you'd get more help if you're renting rather than paying a mortgage. Living in a smallish property which is nice and on a nice road is worth a lot. Two kids sharing a room is not the end of the world: it's not absolutely ideal if you're measuring it against some other people's aspirations but not impossible either.

SusieT

Only you can decide, but if you (like many others) feel that the market is stagnant or going to fall again then you would be better to wait where you are and keep saving until you can find a house that you do like. The extra deposit will go in your favour and you will be able to get a better mortgage interest rate.
If you can hold off having a child for a couple of years it would help, plus while a baby you could have the cot in your room or see if your step daughter would be happy to share for a while.

timshaw

yeah all good advice. seeing alot of the public sector job losses will affect myself in the private sector. we've yet to look at some other properties so we may just put in cheeky offers with the view to them not being accepted then if they do we may have a bargain on our hands