Are you in your forever home and if so how old were you when you bought it?

[ytee]

I feel like I should be in our forever home by this stage in my life ( early 40s dc7) but I'm not

Tell me there is still hope!

I have a nice 3 bed semi but it's not what I dreamed of a 4 bed detached with a big garden

Maybe I'll never get that! Who knows!

No, I'm not. This is the third home we've bought but it's not the death nest. I'm almost mid 40s and we'll move again when the teenagers move out.

We're in our forever home, I will never move again (unless I have to!), I was 33 and Dh 38 when we bought it. We did well on our first home and that helped. We absolutely mortgaged ourselves to the max for this, and for ten years we've overpaid and saved a lot (in our old house and this one) to be able to afford it. We need to spend a fair bit in this house that we are currently saving and doing work when we can. But yes. It is a big house with a big garden, and compared to our friends we've made that final jump early.

Do you have 7 children or 1 child aged 7?! (Missing the point but it has distracted me!)

DH and I have a 3 bed semi, we would love a 4 bed detached but we're not willing to sacrifice location, so while this doesn't feel like our forever home, it's certainly home for the foreseeable!

We were lucky to get on the housing ladder relatively young (DH bought a flat when we were mid-20s and not yet married, then we got married, sold the flat and bought our current house around 30). When we bought it we weren't sure how long we'd stay but here we are, planning to stay longer. (We've viewed houses this year but the market is weird, very little on the market, nothing we like more than ours and crazy money.)

I think the answer to your question depends on 2 important factors:

1. Area of the country and affordability of housing
2. The person's lifestyle and attitude, some people like to settle down and others prefer to move around (others, like us, struggle to decide )

No I'm not because if my DC all move out and away we'll follow them

Yes... Been here 21 years.... Four bed semi detached. Lovely neighbours... Lovely village.

Yes. I think.

Moved in when I was 42, DH 48 and DD was 9. We have ‘future proofed’ as much as poss, my only concern is the garden which takes a lot of looking after. It’s a 4 bed (3.5 really) with a large downstairs bedroom that has its own loo/shower. It’s in a quiet neighbourhood, with an active community and is close to major roads etc.

It’s the only home we’ve owned and we have no desire to move again.

Oh yeah. Downsized (but same square footage in house - tiny garden now) from a 4 bed in the Home Counties to a flat in zone 3.

Got 2 extra bathrooms and 12 foot ceilings for the same square footage.

And I've moved 32 times (11 buys)

Now about to buy our ‘forever home’. It’s not my dream house or anything but it’s going to offer us (after a lot of work) exactly what we want from a home. We’re 31.

We'll not be here forever, forever because it is too big to manage easily but it is the home for as long as possible. In it 36 years sofar, bought at 23 yo.

Yes.

Was about 32 when we bought it. DP was about 38.

I don’t believe in forever homes. It’s wasteful. The appropriate house for your stage of life. Currently living in a 5 bed period close to DC school. If they go into boarding will downsize to a 2/3 bed closer to work. When we’re both retired will find a nice cottage in the country.

I agree with Velveteen.
I suppose if you interpreted "forever" more loosely to mean "family home you plan to live in for at least 20 years before downsizing" more people might say yes

Bought at 32 and have lived here for 15 years. I'm not sure if it will be forever, but the thought of moving, (packing, dealing with selling/buying), fills me with dread.

Yes. First (and hopefully only purchase) was a 3 bed semi. A bit nuts as at the time I was 27 and single with 2 dogs, but the family followed. I've just paid the mortgage off and have no desire to get another so that's it for me unless I have to go smaller for health reasons one day.

Yes I'm in my forever home.
We built it.Moved in when we got married. I went from a 2 bed flat to a 5 bed house. I loved I was able to pick everything that I wanted for it,DH owns a house building company, I used the designers he uses for their showhomes.
I was 32 when we moved in.

Not at all. Early 40 with 2 dc (15 & 13). I’m in the right house for now, close to jobs etc... but think there are probably 2 more moves (at least). Ideal house on the West Coast of Scotland and then probably small and practical for older age.

But to be fair we have moved house a lot (currently on 10th house since uni) so that might alter me view point.

If the house you are currently in works for you it is the right house.

"DH owns a house building company"
This is where I went wrong in my choice of husband

I have 1 dc age 7 not 7dc

I suppose I don't need my forever home ideal ( ours suits us fine at the mo and we won't have any more dc sadly so we don't need more space) but I always thought I would have a big 4 bed detached with a large garden

Maybe I don't need that .. it would massively stretch us financially and for what..

Great to hear from those who have made it and it's worked out well though

Yes - I was 39 when we bought it. It’s not a very big house so it seems a bit of a squish with two young children ... but it’s a farm so there’s plenty of outside space.

DH says this is our forever home, mainly because he says he's finally settled, as we've just bought and he has done lots of renting and moving for various reasons until now. He's 50, I'm 38.

Yep - I was just turned 21 when we exchanged. DH was 43 though. I don't think I could think of living anywhere else because his memory is everywhere here, so it will be my forever house.

Been here since I was 28 we don’t plan to move so long as we can still manage the stairs

Yes, I'm 67 and we moved into a ground floor apartment in our little Spanish village. It's only a few hundred yards from our old apartment, which was on 2 floors. We're slowly 're wiring. Putting in air con etc. The kitchen will be redone with large drawers, high oven etc. It's very comfortable at my time of life. It's got fibre broadband and a large craft room. It near bars and the medical centre. What more could I want?

I was just turning 40 when we moved into this house. It was nearly 12 years later when we got it looking the way we wanted. I love it now.

Also agree with Velveteen, we have been in what we thought was our forever home for 20 years, in 7 years we will be moving to a home for the next stage of our life, will keep enough bedrooms for DC as DD will only be 18 then, we want a house with less work, presently live in large detached with big garden, I want to spend retirement doing things other than house and garden.