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Original poster

AIBU to double my mortgage to move to a nicer area

35 replies

Wallabywaysydney · 29/05/2026 09:33

I need some opinions as im spiralling, but weve just put our house on the market and im panicking about whether im mad for doing so.

We live in a decent sized 3 bed house, but in a bit of a crap area, the primary school is awful but we've secured a place in an out of catchment school. We have had 3 sets of bad neighbours next door over the 15 years weve lived here - filthy and loud ones, extremely loud ones and now quiet but messy and i think drug dealer and user ones. My anxiety around what their doing is constant, and I get a pit of dread in my stomach whenever I come home from a trip away. Im sure the last ones gave me PTSD as I constantly check for movement and noise and worry if the neighbours are in the garden, and if I see the extremely loud ones on the street I get flashbacks and panic attacks (I experienced these neighbours during severe PPD/PPA - for context r.e the extreme reactions)

However our mortgage is small, £500 a month for around 15 years. We are trying to move to a nicer area, but its going to double our mortgage cost and length of time.

Am I mad to move? We will halve our savings but still manage to put some up.

I just need some unbiased opinions - thank you

OP posts:
cracklehatlife · 29/05/2026 11:07

This was exactly us ten years ago. We went from £500 to £1000 a month. I’m very risk averse so it was a big thing to me. But I’d lived in deprived and dangerous areas my whole life and wanted more for my children. We took the plunge. Money was tight for a while, especially as I stayed home for a few years before the children got to school age.

However, time passes quickly and now it is the best thing we ever did. Within one hour of being in the new house, in a lovely area, all my fears of the new big mortgage fell away. Because we were so happy to finally not be living in a bad area. It changed our lives and our house is now worth a lot more so if we ever need to downsize to free up cash ever we can. Il so glad we stretched ourselves when we were at an age to do so. We also spend a lot less because the area we live in now is so beautiful that we live a very outdoorsy life which costs very little. When I lived in the bad area, we’d spend money to escape the stress and trauma of where we lived.

Dazedanddiscombobulated · 29/05/2026 11:06

Honestly, we could have bought in a cheaper area and occasionally I wonder whether we should have prioritised being mortgage free earlier. But we can afford the mortgage, even if we won’t be mortgage free before 60, and I genuinely love our road. It’s such an amazing family-friendly community - there’s a great school for my son when he starts in September, a lovely green and shops at one end, and country-side at the other end.

HeNeedsRehab · 29/05/2026 11:05

Do it.

We moved from a mid terrace in a not so great area to a detached in a nice area and honestly it changed my life.

I didn’t realise how much we were moderating our behaviour before and how much they were affecting us.

MidnightPatrol · 29/05/2026 11:01

What is £1000 as a % of your income?

It’s a pretty ordinary looking mortgage nowadays.

I’ve always found living in a nice area improves your life in a myriad of ways.

JuliaBraverman · 29/05/2026 11:01

You can’t put a value on peace of mind however you also can’t choose your new neighbours.

Hanjusy · 29/05/2026 10:58

Your new neighbours aren’t guaranteed to be any better, just be mindful of that x

Anjoola · 29/05/2026 09:42

It’s not mad to move, definitely not. If you are confident you can manage the increased cost of the mortgage to move to a nicer area, then I’d do the same as you.

We moved from quite a nice new build housing estate to our present home.

Nothing like as stressful as your street - but I was getting fed up of taking my toddler to the little green space opposite our house to play, only to find the yobs from the end of the estate (sorry, yes the social housing end!) had not just been making a racket the last night, they’d been drinking and left behind a load of trash, those little nitrous oxide whippets, cans and even worse they clearly deliberately smashed bottles by lobbing them around.

Both our catchment primaries were crap, although the local secondary school was excellent.

It wasn’t unbearable but we were just unbelievably glad to leave and we love our new home. It’s a little bigger, a lot further from London, and the area is amazing. I have neighbours who have lived here 30 years and they were nervous when we moved in that we’d be a bad element! Which was fun and I have spent 12 blissfully happy years in this house, love our neighbours and happy paying down the big mortgage!

TemporarilyCantDoMyself · 29/05/2026 09:41

If you're going to have a better quality of life for multiple reasons and can afford the move and the ongoing costs, why not? We've just moved and while it's probably not costing us more to live here the whole moving thing cost a bomb and we were in rental for a year, and we're spending a fair bit getting the new house sorted, but I don't regret anything because I'm much happier here than I was there. Worth everything!

Nourishinghandcream · 29/05/2026 09:40

If you dislike where you live then do it.

Of course you can't guarantee your neighbours wherever you live but you know they are not good where you are now and (fingers crossed) they will be better in a nicer area.

That mortgage sounds doable and after a few years of paying it down, you will wonder why you didn't do it before.

Good luck.

FirstDayonthePlanet · 29/05/2026 09:38

If you can afford the new mortgage payments then I think the peace is completely worth it, and would absolutely move elsewhere.