Advice needed - buy or wait

GH80

I am in the position to look for a new house, I am married with a young family. I was wanting a general opinion as I am unsure how far to push mortgage debt.
We have been paying off our existing mortgage (purchase price £160k, mortgage £135k) for 8 years to stay out of negative equity.
Currently we have about £80k deposit for our new house (using every penny of all our savings and the sale of our current house), and we can get a maximum mortgage up to around £195k. I work full time and my wife works 2 days per week, with a combined salary of £45k and soon to be two young children.
Unfortunately my mother in law died and we are set to inherit about £65k but this could take a year or two to come through.

We have seen a very nice house at £270k but this is our absolute maximum, until inheritance comes through. So would you go for it, and have no backup finances for a year or two, or wait?

chelseablue

This is just my opinion but personally I wouldn't buy a house that left me with £0 left over.


Just in case one of us lost our job or work needed doing in the house, washing machine went bang etc


We bought a house in February and I have around 11k emergency money stashed away

MerrilyA

I think you would have to weigh up the pros and cons. If you buy now you can get the house and gradually be building up a savings pot or you could wait. However, you'd have to consider that waiting also means a very high chance of increasing house value so you'd have to think about that.

Is your current home going to be suitable for your family? Could that deposit be used to improve your current home?

I wouldn't want to be financially in a tight spot, I think it's good to have a contingency pot but all circumstances have to be considered.

You just have to discuss things with your wife and lay out all the pros and cons considering your situation, think of what your plans are for the future and also think about any potential pitfalls that could arise and how you would handle them.

GH80

I really would prefer not to have £0 backup. I am leaning towards "wait" but as mentioned by another poster above that the wait may equal rise in value. There is a shortage of larger houses in the area and I also wonder about the large number of people who bought in the boom and are not moving up the property ladder as normal, who are now starting to come out of negative equity and will be adding to an already busy market.

Unfortunately no room for extending, we are in a relatively new semi (up 12 years).

If we took the new house, it would mean mortgage payment increasing from £500pm currently to £750pm, and our monthly savings / overpayment pot goes down from £600pm to £350pm.

It seems a bit risky to me, but is the reward worth it? It would be a substantial house increase, 3500 square foot, double garage with office, large garden, closer to work etc.