To wonder if having a mortgage is worth it?

[malificent7]

If for example you have to scrimp and save for a deposit first...then earn enough for the monthly deposit.
It may mean giving up pleasures and treats in life such as nice food or a social life.
Also it means that many will stay in jobs they hate for fear of loosing a house.

I am aiming for a mortgage but has anyone decided not to get one in order to have a better quality of life. ( mad though that sponds.) I know that dp will gave virtually nowt left for treats if we got one which is going to be hard for 25 years.

Sounds even !

I think so because mortgage isn’t much more than rent, and at the end of 25 years I will have something to show for all that money. If renting, it’s just lining someone else’s pocket.

We scrimped and saved to build a deposit, but our actual mortgage payment is the same as rent, so the scrimping hasn’t gone on forever for us.
Plus every month some of the money goes into equity (and a load of interest I know...) so it’s also a way of saving, which you might not be able to do while renting.

If you are young then your earning power can increase, therefore it’s might not be so much of a struggle.
If you are private renting then I couldn’t handle the uncertainty as quite a few of my friends have had to live due to LL wanting property back.

Well to me the benefit of a mortgage is that it ends (we were lucky enough to pay ours off early) and the house is all ours then - no rental payments, which would be difficult to keep up with in retirement.

We can do whatever we want with the house (finances permitting) although that does also include the cost of maintenance.

However, I still think having somewhere to live when we are not earning outweighs the maintenance costs by a long way!

Worth it when you own your property outright at retirement age and don’t have to find rent when you’re no longer working.

Can also sell to downsize and release funds, to retire before whatever ancient age the government thinks you should work until.

You won’t have virtually nothing for the whole 25 years. Chances are you will get pay rises/promotions at some point. And what happens when you retire and stop earning? Where will you live then? In an ideal world people in that position would be looked after by the state. The way things are going now though, I really wouldn’t count on it. If you can in any way afford this, do it, for your own long term security.
(I know not everyone can afford to, I’m not overlooking that, I’m just answering the OPs question).

I hope it's worth it @malificent7 as Ive been saving since August for a mortgage deposit. 🙈

I told myself I wanted the deposit ready before the end of 2019!

I rent atm and hate that I've paid thousands to live here and it's not mine.

We can do this 💪🏻💪🏻

I can't imagine being able to afford rent on a pension which is what could have to happen if you don't have a mortgage (which hopefully will be paid off by retirement).

Also, having had mortgages and owning property has allowed me to move into bigger and better houses in nicer areas when the house has gone up in value. When you rent it's just the cost of rent that goes up if you want a better house.

I don't want to knock renting entirely as I completely understand some people aren't able to buy a property, and there are some advantages to renting over owning, but if you're in a position to own/mortgage to me it's almost a no brainer.

It's nice when it's paid off and you have no housing costs, but I guess you have all the expense of maintaining a house and paying for repairs etc which you don't with renting. In my job I see people who rent get most of their rent covered when they are pensioners if they don't have much of a pension or savings wheras those who have possibly scrimped and saved to get on the ladder for years or who took out a mortgage later in life are left struggling. I know ideally you should try to plan to have it paid off by the time you hit retirement but in reality things often happen - illness/ divorce etc and people struggle. If you rent and have no assets you get care paid for in your old age if you become ill, if you've scrimped to buy then it gets sold to pay for care. There's lots to consider. On balance I'm glad we've bought our house but then it was when houses were relatively cheap and we've been fortunate to pay off the mortgage in our fifties.

My monthly mortgage payments are now lower than renting a similar sized property. It also means when I retire I don't have to factor paying rent into my outgoings as I should be mortgage free by then.

It was totally worth it for us. Paid off mortgage with big pay rises and now we are reaping the rewards well before retirement. I would be anxious to rent and have no secure home as an elderly person.

As above, worth it when it’s paid off and you can retire with your roof over your head, then it can be sold to pay for your care home. Whilst someone who has rented gets theirs paid for. Swings and roundabouts I suppose.

Mortgages end.
Rents don't.

With a mortgage, you've got security. No landlord can suddenly decide they want the house back and give you 2m notice. This can happen several times and each time you've got to pay a new deposit to move into a new property.

PLUS, the rent can be more than the monthly mortgage! And it can go up every year forevermore! So renting is a mugs game unless you've got no choice.

It's worth it when you live in an area where rents are sky high. It would have cost us almost twice our monthly mortgage payments to rent in our street. Admittedly, we had a 40% deposit but that's partly because we'd already paid off a mortgage on a much cheaper house, in the past.

And that difference between paying a mortgage and paying rent is the biggie - had we rented our previous house, we wouldn't have had that deposit.

Depends on circumstances. We had quite a big deposit (taken from general savings that we had both built up over the years), so our mortgage was actually cheaper than renting a comparable property. That made it a bit of a no-brainer tbh. We also overpaid on the mortgage and were able to pay it off early, so now we're in the happy position of having no housing costs.

I guess it's different if you're struggling to save and if your mortgage repayments would be much higher than renting.

I don't think home ownership is essential, but renting does seem like pouring money down the drain. If you decide not to buy, you need to to consider how you'll pay for your housing costs when you're too old to work. Might be worth trying to get on a list for council housing, although I'm aware that it's virtually impossible to get a council property in some areas.

The trouble with not getting a mortgage and forever renting is that in the long run you are left with no security because your home could be taken from you with a few weeks notice (I know a couple with 3 kids who had to move from their much loved home because the landlord decided to sell, they found something else only for the same thing to happen again 6 months later and had to move again, all very stressful and hard on the kids and they had distance to school to think about etc). Also rents may rise and rise but hopefully your mortgage will go down with time. Also obviously think about the money you can make on a house, we made 60k on our first house which enabled us to move to a nicer area and get a bigger house with very little increase on our monthly payments. This would not have been possible if we were renting. Also looking forward to having a big asset in retirement to give us options - we could sell and downsize if we need more money or need to help family. I’ve genuinely always wondered how long term renters manage in retirement when they no longer have the income to privately rent? Are you forced into renting from the council? In which case you could end up in an area you don’t like and in a property you don’t like? To me owing gives me options in the longer term and more security. I’m sure there are benefits to long term renting too but just giving my take on my I wouldn’t do it unless I really couldn’t save a deposit (which I appreciate some people can’t).

My mortgage is way cheaper then when I was private renting (£300 less) and I am left with a lot
More money left over now. However my company is going through a restructure with potential redundancies and the first thing I thought of was my mortgage (I am single and live alone ) and even if I wanted to take redundancy I feel I can’t due to this. That being said like other posters have said renting is lining someone else’s pockets and usually the same or more expensive than a mortgage

Rent on a one or two bed flat in my area is more than our mortgage on a large three bed semi with 120ft garden and we only bought this house in 2016 and still have a large mortgage to pay off, we'd be financially worse off renting.

Our NDN pay 150 more rent than we do for our mortgage on a house with 1 less bedroom than us. If you can afford the deposit it makes much more sense.

Quality of life when retired is more important in my opinion.

I’m 31, I have been almost constantly renting since the age of 17, I hate to think how much that cost me.

I now have a mortgage, it is slightly less than my rent, it will however come to an end, if I don’t make over payments I will be mortgage free in 15 years, what would make me 46. I could potentially have no housing costs (apart from maintenance) for another 40 years.

There are other benefits, I’m not at risk of someone selling my property and having to move, I don’t have to hide my cat for six monthly inspections, if I die my mortgage is paid giving my son either somewhere to live, or a property to be sold so the money can br used to care for him.

I also don't want to be thinking about paying rent when I'm retired, my mortgage will long be paid off by then

We've got a mortgage, well we owe the building society £1 as if we owe them money they keep our house deeds safe and don't charge us. They never ask for the interest on that £1.
Rent is forever, a mortgage ends.