Should we stay mortgage free or should we take on a mortgage?

scorpio73

We own our 3 bed end of terrace house in NW London (zone 4) outright. It's probably currently worth over £500K. We are quite happy here, a suburban area with fast links to central London but we have been thinking of moving to a more child friendly safe area (2 young kids), good schools, 3-4 beds and with maybe a nice high street, something we don't have here. It should be a tolerant cosmopolitan area as that's what we are used to here in London. It needs to be commutable to London, ideally Waterloo, max 1 hour journey.

It has been great to be mortgage free. It has enabled us to have my wife stay at home with the kids most of the time although she has worked part time for some periods. I am wondering what you would do in my shoes:

1. sell our house and try to buy a house for £500K without a mortgage. This would likely limit our options considering our above stated criteria.
2. sell our house and take a mortgage on my salary only. I think I could get £150K so a total of £650K. Would this addition make a such a big difference? It would also mean that we would stretch ourselves a bit financially as I am currently the only breadwinner.
3. wait until my wife find a job when my youngest child go full time school in Sep. She might not find a suitable job immediately and even if she manages it might take few months for the banks to accept her income but her experience and field should make an employment likely. My guess is that once she find a job we might be able to get a join mortgage of ca £300K, so would have a total budget of max £800K.
4. stay where we are until oldest child finishes her primary school in 4 years time by which time we also should know how much damage Mr Trump has done to the world economy and the world in general. Also the effects of Brexit on the economy makes me think that maybe we should be cautious. It just feels that it's very unstable worldwide which makes me think maybe not the best time to take on a mortgage?

Thanks in advance.

silvercar

See what the prices are in the areas that you would consider living. If you can't find anything half way decent, then option 1 is out of the question.

I'm only marginally outside the NW London bubble and prices have increased massively over the last 1-2 years. Makes me think that you have time on your side at the moment.

zagubov

Some parts of Sutton and Kingston (especially New Malden) might be worth exploring. New Malden's leafy and spacious, has some good primary schools and the borough has good grammar schools but also good comprehensives (plus good access to Kinsgton for amenities and Waterloo for work).

ReadingTim

Given you use the term "child friendly safe area", then proceed to describe a nice middle class politically correct urban guardian-reading utopia, I don't think you should move anywhere - wrap yourselves and your children up in cotton wool and NEVER even leave the house - danger lurks around very corner.

nicmyles

Take a look at Beckenham/Penge - £650k would get you what you're after there, with much less commute time than an hour. £500k wouldn't, so the additional cash would make a big difference.

Bob_Bank_Spanker_2

ReadingTim wrote: »

Given you use the term "child friendly safe area", then proceed to describe a nice middle class politically correct urban guardian-reading utopia, I don't think you should move anywhere - wrap yourselves and your children up in cotton wool and NEVER even leave the house - danger lurks around very corner.

Slough is out, then.

ReadingTim

Bob_Bank_Spanker wrote: »

Slough is out, then.

Of course it is! The OP will be "tolerant" of everyone who shares the same views, interests, socio-economic background as he does, whilst "cosmopolitan" refers to a desire for a wide range of ethic restaurants and delicatessens. Whilst triumphing diversity, he doesn't want to live anywhere too diverse, as that will contain people who are uncomfortably poorer, more foreign and generally different to him.

Ideally, he wants to move to an Enid Blyton novel.

amateur_house

ReadingTim wrote: »

Of course it is! The OP will be "tolerant" of everyone who shares the same views, interests, socio-economic background as he does, whilst "cosmopolitan" refers to a desire for a wide range of ethic restaurants and delicatessens. Whilst triumphing diversity, he doesn't want to live anywhere too diverse, as that will contain people who are uncomfortably poorer, more foreign and generally different to him.

Ideally, he wants to move to an Enid Blyton novel.

I don't think we can assume that much about the OP from a single post. I would like to live in a nice safe area, yet I read the Daily Mail instead of the Guardian, and grew up on a council estate often referred to as one of the most deprived in the UK. I would consider myself to be tolerant of those who are poorer than me.

carefullycautious

When you have children you want the best for them and that includes a safe environment for them to grow up in. There are parts of any city/ Town that I would not feel safe in and I do not think you can condemn the OP for that.

Back to the question, I would prefer to remain mortgage free as children do grow up quickly and fly the nest but then again I am not you so good luck with whatever you decide.

carefullycautious

amateur_house wrote: »

I don't think we can assume that much about the OP from a single post. I would like to live in a nice safe area, yet I read the Daily Mail instead of the Guardian, and grew up on a council estate often referred to as one of the most deprived in the UK. I would consider myself to be tolerant of those who are poorer than me.

Exactly my sentiments

scorpio73

Thank you for your replies. Much appreciated.

I have heard good things about New Malden so worth exploring.

I have a friend who lives in Beckenham and likes it so again worth looking into.

ReadingTim - not sure what exactly in my post provoked you to the degree of posting a quite unhelpful ignorant comments. You think you know me form a short post on MSE? I think most parents want their children to live in safe areas. Also I value a mixed tolerant environment. Do you have an issue with that? If you disagree fine, we live in a democracy, but why wasting your time, and mine, to post bitter unhelpful comments.