To ask how much you spend on the mortgage every month

[carol1234568]

I'm considering buying a house.

The monthly repayments would be £1100ish, is that a lot compared to the average?

This isn't a question I can ask people in real life. Our monthly income is about £3600 after tax plus overtime.

I'm worried we are stretching ourselves. We haven't reached our full earning potential yet and I'm happy to earn more money in the future.

carol1234568 seems pretty reasonable to me. You have enough to cover bills and council tax and have a good sum left over. We pay £2500 a month but we have a good joint salary and its very affordable for us. Definitely check the total outgoings and make sure your happy with what you have left over every month

Mine was £750 to start with. It's down to £500 now.

£1050 a month and we overpay £500 each month too. Monthly income £6000.

I'm going against the grain here.

I think that's too much if you're going to have to pay for childcare to maintain that income in the future.

It's not just the mortgage, you'll have to pay life insurance, plus bills, maintenance for the house.

Given that you're signing up for say 25 years, you need to consider your financial position in the next few years. Childcare for say 2 children would easily be more than your mortgage, so with bills etc, you'll quickly be short of disposable income.

Are your earnings likely to increase? People do tend to take 'a hit' on their finances whilst they have young children (assuming you have to pay for childcare) but just make sure you do your sums to consider whether you could stretch that far.

Mortgage is about £750 per month but we overpay and pay double that. Income approximately £5500 per month.

Joint income basic after tax £4000 ish, fluctuates for various reasons. Mortgage just under £1000 council tax £150 life insurance £65. We live comfortably no debt other than mortgage , several nice holidays a year, pay for a cleaner, socialising, eating out etc, but we don't have kids yet (one on the way). You should be fine.

£1600 plus C/T of £275. We have a very good income and 19 years left to go. What we can afford has no bearing on what other people pay though,

I would say go for it, but realize that the first 5 years are going to be the hardest.
What you need to do is get rid of all excess debt: credit cards, store cards, loans etc.

Then you will or should be able to manage.
Also have a life happens fund and a emergency fund.
I know there are going to be parts of the house you hate, like the kitchen or bathroom, but I would hold off on doing any changes until I have at least 12 months mortgage/bills save in your emergency fund and a decent amount in your life happens fund.
Once those are established, you can then look at your finances again as see where you can start making small changes to the house.
Lastly, if you cannot cook, learn, because the last thing you need is to spend money unnecessarily on take out food and lunches daily.
This is not to say that you cannot treat yourself, but you have to put your spending into perspective.
You are going to have to be very creative with your eating out and having a cheap holiday now and again.
Trust me I am speaking from experience. I remember the 1990s when interest rates were 15%, those were the hellish days. Who is to say they cannot return.
Now I have been mortgage free for the last 4 years and its the best feeling in the world.

Marjorie25, it is extremely difficult for people starting on the property ladder now to save up a 10% deposit, let alone 12 months’ worth of bills/mortgage.

If you haven't reached your full earning potential then go for it.

With that and the fact normally over time your mortgage payments go down you should be fine.

Just be aware unlike historic times it may take a decade for your mortgage payments to go down/seem less.

$1200 a month, includes tax and insurance.

If you have kids will you go straight back to work? If so, how will you afford the mortgage plus childcare? If not, how will you afford the mortgage on the lower income?

Those would be my questions before I bought a house.

I think that's a pretty high mortgage (we pay about $1100 a month and it's a fixed rate for the entire term of the mortgage so will never go up).

Not impossible though, and it would probably be sensible to start investing your money in property rather than renting unless prices are about to seriously drop.

Back to the OP : The monthly repayments would be £1100ish, is that a lot compared to the average?

It's a bit of a daft question really isn't it?

£1.1K is nothing in London, that's less than the rental price in a down market area on a 2 bed flat. It would be an phenomenal amount in the North, or rural Wales.

Income is
3200
Mortgage is 999... seriously reduced the term.
Nursery fees 1000

We manage fine but we have no other loads etc

We have a similar income and mortgage payments of £900 per month and are fine. 2 kids, no childcare, but save £300 (at least) each month. As long as you build up savings for potential maternity/childcare (if needed) I don’t think you’re overstretching yourself.

At its highest ours was £4,000 a month but that was for a variety of reasons - both self employed and could only get a 10 year mortgage at the rate we wanted and were overpaying on an interest only mortgage to pay the equivalent of a repayment mortgage plus a bit extra.
We stretched ourselves buying this property and it paid off for us (we recently paid off the mortgage in mid 40s 3.5 years early) but I would caution against doing that in this climate. Interest rates are likely to increase back to historically more normal levels eventually and there is change on the horizon with Brexit, rising oil prices etc so I think its particularly important to have some wriggle room atm.