If you were me, what price of house would you buy?

[Housedebates]

We are a couple in our 30s, no kids.
Gross income just under 90k.
Savings around 40k.
House has around 160k equity.
Current mortgage is around 17% of our net pay.

If you were us, what price of house would you be comfortable buying?

Important question is whether you hope to have dc in the next 5 years or so, and would this be a long term home ( as far as you can predict ), as that will affect affordability.

Also - do you run cars, pay season tickets etc?
Do you expect your income to rise above inflation , through career progression for example?

Anyway, for me, I would be looking to max at £550 - £600k assuming the bank agreed , but that would also depending on area, market, and condition. ( as in a doer-upper would need to be lower price)

I would hope to keep my £40k as a cushion.

DH & I have had fairly large mortgages in the past, but our other outgoings were modest and we had the opportunity to increase earnings.

£550k tops. But depends if you are planning to have kids. Lower if you are.

No plans to have kids and yes would probably be a long term home. I was thinking is 350 too much, so pleased (if surprised) by the responses!

I would say £450k.

Thank you for the replies

What is your current house worth?
What is you current combined take home?

It's all a bit "how long is a piece of string" really isn't it. I would look at your income and bills and work out what monthly ammount you are comfortable spending on a mortgage and work back from there.

Also all depends on what you want, do you want a new home, a grand home and so on. Or are you content if you have the space you need? What do you enjoy in life? If you spend more on a house but can hardly afford holidays will you still be happy? Or would you rather spend less and travel more? Everybody is different and had different needs and wants and there is no right answer other than what is right for you.

Your location matters too. Some parts of the country you can buy a decent house for £150k and others you need to spend £300k for an equivalent house in an equivalent area.

Eg we could afford much bigger and "better" than our house. We both work, our income is a fair bit higher than yours. On paper we should have a bigger house. Or "nicer" house at any rate. But we like our village, we have the space we need. So do we need to move to fit the model of what a family like ours "should" have? Of course not. We have never spent more than £130k on a house in our lives.

We are similar age and income to you, slightly less equity and we are considering homes of around £350k which in our area will buy a nice house that is the size we need.

My husband would like to spend less, I would like to spend more, it all depends what you need and how much that costs.

About £450-500k.

What is net income? Both earning 45k is much better than 10k and 80k both financially and in terms of security.

What do you want to do other than own a house and pay a mortgage? Early retirement so pay into a pension? Lots of travel?

Work out how much you want to spend on the mortgage, factor in potential rate rises and you have your answer.

Thanks for the good food for thought, we do enjoy travel and currently save about the same as our mortgage (before overpayment) for holidays.