Dilemna - mortgage reduce or extend

Thmas_Covenant

Classic dilemna - we have a decent house in a decent area, but not our perfect 4 bed detached. Kids are still very young.
Current mortgage has only 14yrs left after reducing the term a while back - still affordable. We have equity of around 60% in the house.
Carry on as we are and we are mortgage free at aged around 50.
Other option is to go for perfect house now, probably increase mortgage by around £100k, and term to 20yrs plus.
So option 1 - sit tight, be satisfied with current lot as kids young, less financial stress, even if I lose my job, we would never lose the house.
Option 2 - stretch ourselves, go through another move, be in a great house but have more financial pressure practically (month to month) and in the mind (lose job and potentially lose house!).

Option 1 seems the sensible thing to do, but if you don't take risks then you never achieve much. If we go for it, we will be in our perfect house and have a lot more equity when we are older.

Not looking for an answer, need to decide my own attitude to risk etc, but looking for inspiration, advice, experience to help me decide :eek:

keanelover

Stay put, I wouldn't take a risk if you kids are still youg(ish) you seem to be in a fairly fortunate position and you never know an even better house may come along when things are more settled and you are mortgage free

Wh05apk

Now presumably is when you need the bigger house when the kids are young, how safe is your job, would it stretch you to get a larger mortgage?

Are you able, or have you considered extending?

A personal choice, but if affordable, I would get the bigger house, I know the housing market has/had some issues, but ultimately you will always have a greater asset which should appreciate long term, the price differential may never be as favourable again as prices start to rise.

I know I will be short down for saying this by the doom mongers who all feel prices are about to collapse, and you will be able to buy a 4 bed house soon for the price of a decent car, but I really beleive long term prices will rise.

getmore4less

Pretend you have bought this perfect house.

Bigger mortgage councill tax bills etc.

Save/overpay with the money you would have been spending.

If you manage then you know you could afford the jump, if not you have not made a big mistake.

Over time the jump gets cheaper the risk gets lower as you have saved some of the jump.

Another year or two probably won't hurt(stagnent market) where you are.

You can be on the lookout for a bargain desperate seller when rates rise and they can't afford their mortgage.

Thrugelmir

Sulli wrote: »

The jump in payments is £300+ a month, as we will extend term, depends on how far we extend, 20-25 yrs. At present that's affordable with belt tightening, although that outlay will impact upon luxuries like going out and holidays.
Job is securish, but at the moment if I lost it, it would be unlikely that i couldn't get another that would give me enough disposable income to cover mortgage and living. With double the mortgage, the situation changes, manageable, but if the worst happens then we could be in trouble - that's the whole thing, risk, speculate to accumulate and all that....

If you can afford an additional £300 increase in repayments. Then overpay your current mortgage. Minimal risk with huge upside. Guaranteed return.

getmore4less

Thmas_Covenant wrote: »

Classic dilemna -

Sulli wrote: »

The...........

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