Sell and Mortgage Free or Stick?

monkey-fingers

A little history. At 50, bought my first house in 2020 for £260,000. 3 bed semi. Sold in 2022 for £330.
Bought 3 bed bungalow for £350,000 on the South Coast and now worth at least £375,000 (location, but also modernised).

There's about £175k on the mortgage.

Would like to be nearer East Anglia, but also near the A1, which is a cheap-cheap area. We could buy a similar bungalow and be mortgage free.

Just been made redundant which means I don't have to be in any particular area - going mortgage free means I could theoretically earn minimum wage, invest 50% into my pension and still have money to spend.

Worth it? Or simply work hard to pay off the house in 10 years?

david29dpo

Being mortgage free (for me) is great. I would do it and live in the best years of your life.

BrilliantButScary

What is attracting you to East Anglia, and in particular the A1, other than cheap property prices? If you move to a cheaper area and don't like it, moving back to a more expensive area again may prove to be a challenge.

Have you been on a fact finding mission, to ascertain what services are like in the area you might choose to move too? Transport, leisure facilities, health facilities, employment opportunities etc

Having said that, we've been mortgage free for a long time. We wouldn't have wanted to be paying a mortgage into our 60s, and subsequently having to remain in employment.

gwynlas

If East Anglia is where you want to be then you might as well move sooner rather than later.

Being mortgage free and able to take on any role should be  life changer.

However unless you re 100% certain as already mentionned you would be less able to move back into a more affluent area.

If you are seriously contemplating move then be very aware of future needs re amenities and public transport should you have to give up driving.

Albermarle

Many minimum wage jobs tend to be not that great/interesting/ with little autonomy. ( not all of them of course)

Depending on what you are used to, you might find it difficult to adapt to working at a lower level.

Personally I would not have thought the A1 actually passed through East Anglia. 
Wikipedia though says that the Eastern border of East Anglia is not well defined, so open for discussion.
In any case I would not have thought housing would get cheap until you were around Peterborough.

Bigphil1474

We went mortgage free during the pandemic. It was a great feeling to not have to pay a mortgage, but the whole pandemic experience made us realise we needed more than our house offered. We sold and moved into a much nicer property last year, with a mortgage that will be paid off over 10 years. It's affordable but worth it to us. As above, if you move to a cheap area, it's very difficult to move back, but if that's what will make you happy, I'd say go for it. 

lincroft1710

I don't think anywhere near the A1 is cheap until you get to Grantham. Plus as another poster has pointed out, it is a long way from East Anglia.

monkey-fingers

lincroft1710 said:

I don't think anywhere near the A1 is cheap until you get to Grantham. Plus as another poster has pointed out, it is a long way from East Anglia.

I'd disagree. Cambridgeshire is most definitely East Anglia.
The A1 has a chunky stretch through Cambridgeshire.

jimbog

monkey-fingers said:

lincroft1710 said:

I don't think anywhere near the A1 is cheap until you get to Grantham. Plus as another poster has pointed out, it is a long way from East Anglia.

I'd disagree. Cambridgeshire is most definitely East Anglia.
The A1 has a chunky stretch through Cambridgeshire.

I know the area well, ‘cheap-cheap’ it certainly isn’t 

monkey-fingers

jimbog said:

monkey-fingers said:

lincroft1710 said:

I don't think anywhere near the A1 is cheap until you get to Grantham. Plus as another poster has pointed out, it is a long way from East Anglia.

I'd disagree. Cambridgeshire is most definitely East Anglia.
The A1 has a chunky stretch through Cambridgeshire.

I know the area well, ‘cheap-cheap’ it certainly isn’t 

There are a pile of 3 bedroom houses within 10 miles of Huntingdon under £200k.

I'd say that was cheap-cheap.

Albermarle

monkey-fingers said:

jimbog said:

monkey-fingers said:

lincroft1710 said:

I don't think anywhere near the A1 is cheap until you get to Grantham. Plus as another poster has pointed out, it is a long way from East Anglia.

I'd disagree. Cambridgeshire is most definitely East Anglia.
The A1 has a chunky stretch through Cambridgeshire.

I know the area well, ‘cheap-cheap’ it certainly isn’t 

There are a pile of 3 bedroom houses within 10 miles of Huntingdon under £200k.

I'd say that was cheap-cheap.

But is it East Anglia ?
According to Google it is in the administrative county of Cambridgeshire, which most people seem to think of as being in East Anglia. However Huntingdonshire ( once a county but now a district of Cambridgeshire ) is generally though not to be in East Anglia.

More importantly

There are a pile of 3 bedroom houses within 10 miles of Huntingdon under £200k.

Looked on Right Move- 80 to 90% of these are shared ownership, and most ( not all ) of the others are for auction/investment properties.