House Prices #4 Property market, buying and selling

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sega1985 said:
Hiya hoping to get opinions. We want to upsize, our house is three story which we hate and doesn’t have enough downstairs space (2A 2C). We can’t have people round for dinner or socialising as we don’t have enough space . We would be paying an extra £500 a month on top of what we do now. It’ll be tight but do able
am I dreaming. Is it too risky?
It’s a bit decision so I’m a bit scared 😂
Thanks
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What would happen if rates went up another two percent? Could you still afford it? What about if one or both of you lost your jobs - how long could you pay the mortgage for?
 
Megansnarkle said:
What would happen if rates went up another two percent? Could you still afford it? What about if one or both of you lost your jobs - how long could you pay the mortgage for?
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Good point, interest rates might be manageable we would have to cut back on things then and manage our money tightly. If we lost our jobs that’s different and we would need to find something quickly 🤔is that a reason not to do it do you think?
 
sega1985 said:
Good point, interest rates might be manageable we would have to cut back on things then and manage our money tightly. If we lost our jobs that’s different and we would need to find something quickly 🤔is that a reason not to do it do you think?
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£500 per month is a lot. Would you be able to save for things breaking down or things needing fixed?

I realise that not everyone is in a position to save money every month but if currently you have that £500 as excess thats a great position to be in.

Id probably save the £500 per month for now to see how you live and how things go and if its managable then consider going for it.
 
Would you still be able to socialise the way you do now with the additional cost of the mortgage? I guess if you want to get a bigger house to socialise at then you probably don’t spend too much money socialising
 
sega1985 said:
Good point, interest rates might be manageable we would have to cut back on things then and manage our money tightly. If we lost our jobs that’s different and we would need to find something quickly 🤔is that a reason not to do it do you think?
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Personally I wouldn't stretch myself without a decent buffer (six months of bills at least) in case something went wrong.
 
Caffeine Fiend said:
Id probably save the £500 per month for now to see how you live and how things go and if its managable then consider going for it.
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I’d do the same. I think it depends a little on your lifestyle and also your attitude to risk.

I’m hugely risk adverse so I wouldn’t like things to get that close without still keeping a buffer in the budget. Plus factor in rises across the board, for example my car insurance has gone up 50% on its recent renewal, house insurance about 30%. Council tax will I’m sure go up in April etc.
 
I have savings if things got desperate I can use that, I’ll also still be saving £400 a month personally so it’s not that tight I’m not able to do that. I think I’m scared it’s a big commitment 😂🙈
 
sega1985 said:
Hiya hoping to get opinions. We want to upsize, our house is three story which we hate and doesn’t have enough downstairs space (2A 2C). We can’t have people round for dinner or socialising as we don’t have enough space . We would be paying an extra £500 a month on top of what we do now. It’ll be tight but do able
am I dreaming. Is it too risky?
It’s a bit decision so I’m a bit scared 😂
Thanks
Click to expand...

Is there no way of redesigning the space to make it more user friendly?
 
sega1985 said:
I have savings if things got desperate I can use that, I’ll also still be saving £400 a month personally so it’s not that tight I’m not able to do that. I think I’m scared it’s a big commitment 😂🙈
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It is a huge extra commitment.
Is there something half way, like an extra £250 a month?

And that £500 a month might seem a good idea at the time (now) but 2-3 years down the line you might find things tough by having cut back on other things and doing without.

If I had the spare cash now, I’d be using it to pay off as much capital as I could on an existing mortgage, so that I could possibly be in a position to move without overextending myself.
 
sega1985 said:
Hiya hoping to get opinions. We want to upsize, our house is three story which we hate and doesn’t have enough downstairs space (2A 2C). We can’t have people round for dinner or socialising as we don’t have enough space . We would be paying an extra £500 a month on top of what we do now. It’ll be tight but do able
am I dreaming. Is it too risky?
It’s a bit decision so I’m a bit scared 😂
Thanks
Click to expand...

Is the extra £500 on the total cost of a bigger house (so higher council tax band, higher insurance cost, more energy costs, maintenance etc) or just the mortgage cost per month?
 
bumblebees19 said:
Is the extra £500 on the total cost of a bigger house (so higher council tax band, higher insurance cost, more energy costs, maintenance etc) or just the mortgage cost per month?
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Just the mortgage, council tax is only another £20 a month, I’ve worked out the other extra costs and we can afford it. My assumption is that it’ll go down at some point with interest rates .
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margaretta said:
It is a huge extra commitment.
Is there something half way, like an extra £250 a month?

And that £500 a month might seem a good idea at the time (now) but 2-3 years down the line you might find things tough by having cut back on other things and doing without.

If I had the spare cash now, I’d be using it to pay off as much capital as I could on an existing mortgage, so that I could possibly be in a position to move without overextending myself.
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My assumption is after 2 years realistically interest rates will go down so we could at that point pay the same and over pay.
I already overpay on my current mortgage but yes I could overpay some more to meet in the middle perhaps another £250 a month to prepare me.
 
sega1985 said:
Just the mortgage, council tax is only another £20 a month, I’ve worked out the other extra costs and we can afford it. My assumption is that it’ll go down at some point with interest rates .
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My assumption is after 2 years realistically interest rates will go down so we could at that point pay the same and over pay.
I already overpay on my current mortgage but yes I could overpay some more to meet in the middle perhaps another £250 a month to prepare me.
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We are in a similar situation. Looking to move for more space and also my husbands job as his office is moving.

We are looking to borrow another 130k and it's going to cost an additional 700pm which is doable. But in 3 years when our current fix ends, we would be looking at (based on current rates) our mortgage being 2100pm which is insane. Even if rates dropped to about 3% it would still be about 1900pm which is over double what we pay now. So the move is off the cards I think.
 
HoGi said:
We are in a similar situation. Looking to move for more space and also my husbands job as his office is moving.

We are looking to borrow another 130k and it's going to cost an additional 700pm which is doable. But in 3 years when our current fix ends, we would be looking at (based on current rates) our mortgage being 2100pm which is insane. Even if rates dropped to about 3% it would still be about 1900pm which is over double what we pay now. So the move is off the cards I think.
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Ours is up in August so this is based on current rates for the total so I think this is why my assumption is it’ll come down by the time we re fix in 2-3 years.
 
adviseplz said:
I don’t know how you can be so sure about that. Did economic forecasts predict the last 4 years?
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I didn’t say I was sure, you can’t be sure about anything. I said it was my personal assumption. And that’s what I will operate on, I can’t live my live based on what if , personally I will take all the data I have at hand and make an assumption/decision with that.
You may do it differently and that’s great if it works for you.
 
sega1985 said:
Ours is up in August so this is based on current rates for the total so I think this is why my assumption is it’ll come down by the time we re fix in 2-3 years.
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I’ve been reading/watching a lot on this, the general consensus is that the factors that encourage interest rates to go down are outweighed by the factors to push interest rates up, and will be for some time, so it’s very doubtful we will see sub-3% rates for many years yet.

My main concern with your approach is that your thinking is based solely on the mortgage dropping as rates ease, but the cost of living will not drop alongside. All areas of life, groceries, utilities, insurance etc continue to see unprecedented rises and whilst that trajectory will not continue to be so steep it WILL continue to rise, and honestly unless people start to take their retirements seriously I don’t know how anyone taking on such a lot of extra debt during a time of such a lot of extra payments can also afford to save extra to live on when they retire. It just seems like a house of cards
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It’s opened a can of worms on the thread but as you’re looking for opinions on what to do, in your shoes I would continue to look for a property to upsize with that doesn’t have such a hefty price tag
 
Meg78 said:
I’ve been reading/watching a lot on this, the general consensus is that the factors that encourage interest rates to go down are outweighed by the factors to push interest rates up, and will be for some time, so it’s very doubtful we will see sub-3% rates for many years yet.

My main concern with your approach is that your thinking is based solely on the mortgage dropping as rates ease, but the cost of living will not drop alongside. All areas of life, groceries, utilities, insurance etc continue to see unprecedented rises and whilst that trajectory will not continue to be so steep it WILL continue to rise, and honestly unless people start to take their retirements seriously I don’t know how anyone taking on such a lot of extra debt during a time of such a lot of extra payments can also afford to save extra to live on when they retire. It just seems like a house of cards
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Well we are still able to save per month and if cost of living increases so will wages (mine personally have over the last few years). So we have flex in our outgoings by reducing saving.
My pension contributions are at its highest and we also have other savings of over £15k if needed.
Personally I don’t realistically see how things can continue to go up but again that’s just my personal opinion .
We all make decisions in different ways and I’ll take everyone’s thoughts on board, I’ve found it very helpful.
 
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