Long term dilemma!

tomstickland

Since 2009 I've been talking about moving out of my 1 bed flat. It's a real bind actually. I quite like where I live and it meets most of my needs. However, I've realised that my long term aim must be to move from a flat because it's always at risk from noisy neighbours (I've had a few).

I've decided that if I move then it's going to be one big jump to something that I actually want. Round here that means around £190K on a detatched house. I've found something that I like that's a lot closer to work, fields out of the back, in a nice but not amazing small town.

Asking price £195K. I'm minded to make an offer of £180K or similar.

The trouble is I've got a real quandary on my hands. One extreme or the other: cheap living, loads of spare cash, no worries, I could pay off the mortgage in 4 years. Versus: place that I want to live, closer to work, hopefully much lower neighbour risk, mortgage slave

I'm totally 50:50 on whether it would be the best thing that I ever did versus feeling nice and safe financially where I am.

I've got close to saying "ahhh, just do it" a few times. But then every time I convince myself to just wait a bit longer, because every month sees me paying off more of my mortgage.

I don't know really - I don't have to make a decision. This sort of thing must happen to other people. I think I'm going to wait until someting happens that makes me make a decision.

G_M

Go fo rit.

jozbo

I think I'm going to wait until someting happens that makes me make a decision.

yes... i agree on one hand.
on the other, you are either someone that life happens to or you make it happen!
though being a mortgage slave doesn't sound good.
perhaps you need a compromise between those two extremes.
weigh up what's most important to you (and your goals over next few years....) - make a list!

Wickedkitten

Four years is nothing really and in the meantime the neighbours might go. Not to mention you might be able to find an even better place in a place that is nice AND amazing plus you can have more money to play with

AlexMac

Nice dilemma;

Have cake and eat it? (rent out your flat while keeping it. Find a suburban 'freehold-style' house to live in as a tenant for 6 months to suck n see. Delight in quiet suburbia? Or fail to settle without the reassuring ambient noise of the upstairs neighbour's tap-dancing and the passing sirens of emaegency vehicles and move back to the flat?). Not an entirely flippant proposal; we moved from a shared freehold to a (very small) detached house last autumn and now love the independence and not even to have to consider our impact on the upstairs neighbour's baby (they complained about our noise- and we're in our 60's!)

kingstreet

If you need to sell to create the deposit for the purchase, I'd do nothing until I had a buyer for the flat.

An offer in your current position is likely to be meaningless.

pinkteapot

For what it's worth.... We bought very affordably two years ago. Mortgage repayment is about 10% of our combined net income. We're overpaying heavily and could be mortgage-free in another couple of years. We can go on holidays without worrying about how we'll pay for them. Last month our oven died and we bought a new one without having to take money out of savings. Etc.

It is wonderful and believe me, I am incredibly grateful for the position we're in. I'm well aware that we're very lucky. But, the house isn't my dream house. It's a good practical house in a very practical location. I kind of wished we'd stretched and got the dream house that I could see us in forever already, instead of it being the next place we buy. We could have taken out the big mortgage then and been two years into paying it off already. Instead I expect we'll take it out in another 3-5 years (though by then, with savings, it shouldn't be as big as it would have needed to be back then).

Part of it depends on job security in your sector and how much you expect your salary to increase year on year. If you get reliable pay rises, stretch yourself a bit. Your mortgage repayment will stay the same over the life of the mortgage (subject to interest rate changes obviously) - it doesn't increase with inflation so in 10-15 years the repayment will seem quite a bit smaller than it does now.

EDIT: Basically, what G_M said far more efficiently than me.

rpc

When you say "mortgage slave" is that because the mortgage will be a difficult amount to pay, or simply that you do not like the idea of such a large debt?

A mortgage that you have carefully planned and can afford is good debt. If you will have a better life in the new house, go for it! Where you are you may get mortgage free in 4 years, but you will still be where you are.

Barneysmom

The jump from living in a flat to a house is massive, so I wouldn't just think of it in financial terms, the lifestyle is 100 times better with a house.

Much more room to swing a cat! You'll plenty of room to breathe (priceless).
Go for it, as long as you can pay the mortgage, after all what else will you spend your money on

silvercar

Do you expect your income to rise in the medium term? I'm talking about little rises that cover inflation etc If so then I would go for it. WHat seems a big debt now, could seem a very manageable mortgage in a few years. I'm assuming a detached house will have more than one bedroom, so you always have the option of taking a lodger if you needed to or even if you wanted to hammer at your mortgage.

We've always taken big house jumps as judged that the cost and hassle of moving is so big in itself it is better to move as few times as possible, but always with the aim of being where we want to be. I've always taken the view that you live in your home for 50 weeks of the year and holiday for 2. So if you have to sacrifice a holiday to get the house that you will enjoy living in, its a sacrifice worth making.

LandyAndy

silvercar wrote: »

We've always taken big house jumps as judged that the cost and hassle of moving is so big in itself it is better to move as few times as possible, but always with the aim of being where we want to be. I've always taken the view that you live in your home for 50 weeks of the year and holiday for 2. So if you have to sacrifice a holiday to get the house that you will enjoy living in, its a sacrifice worth making.

My philosophy too. I have to live there all the time. It might as well be somewhere I want to live.