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.

Yes, especially if you get a good mortgage rate. My mortgage is 1/4 of the price of rent (we were lucky to get a house that needed so much work that it was cheap for the area). My mortgage will be paid off in 20 years where as renters will need to pay forever!

We had a mortgage that we managed to pay off early (thanks to the last few years of historically low interest rates). Yes, when we were saving for a deposit (took over 2 years) it felt like there was stuff we were missing out on but we now live somewhere rent/mortgage free which has gone up in value by eye watering amounts.

But those 2 years of scrimping to get the deposit has now resulted in us having far more disposable cash every month than friends that still pay astronomical rent.

@John470322 that's a great idea! Also keeps cheap borrowing available. PIL borrowed again when they hit the bottom of their mortgage and put on a lovely extension and new kitchen, which has since been paid off, without untying any investments/long term savings and without the interest associated with a personal loan.

Inflation will reduce mortgage payments but not rent. I bought my first home in 1986 mortgage was £250 rent would’ve been £150. DH earned we earned £500 between us.

After a couple of moves to bigger properties my mortgage is still £250, rent would be £1400.

Trying to save for a deposit feels so hopeless. Even if I scrimped and save, it will take me a least 5 years of living that way to get a deposit that I can actually buy a house on. I hate to say it but my best option is for DP to buy and we have an agreement about what happens if house sells re: deposit.

To echo PP, our actual mortgage payments are less than my old rent. The deposit was the hard part!

What is the alternative that apparently involves not having to afford monthly housing payments? You'll either be paying mortgage payments or rent.

Would your mortgage cost more each month than renting?

Remember to factor in maintainance and repairs, but yes in long run will work out cheaper and you are secure, can improve to make money.
House value will rise and enable you to borrow, or move later.
Not for everyone but if settled and can afford it it's a no brainier.
Look at help to buy website.

Have you looked into what kind of mortgage payments you would be making if you bought a property similar to the one you are currently renting?

I'd be surprised if the mortgage payments would be higher than your current rent. In fact I'd be surprised if they weren't lower.

Plus with a mortgage you are paying off some capital every month, not just interest. And over the long term property prices tend to go up, so you'd probably get the benefit of that as well.

Shop around for a good mortgage deal and keep switching mortgages whenever the introductory rate runs out - or at least keep checking what your alternatives are. It's a pain in the arse but it saves you a tonne of money.

If my husband and I had to pay rent now, I don't know how we would cope. We're pensioners with a paid off mortgage. It's worth hanging in with the mortgage.

You may end up losing all your equity anyway if you end up in a care home.

Owning your home can be costly for maintainance are repairs.

My mortgage is considerably less than renting the equivalent property (about 2/3rds).

But...… in the 2 years I've 'owned' I've had to fork out for a new shower, hob and washing machine. Plus payments to a plumber when I've had a water leak. So that's taken away the short term saving.

I got offered a job which would be about a 3 hour round commute. Had I been renting I would have taken it in a heartbeat and relocated. As it was after reflection, I turned it down.

I worry constantly about my boiler breaking down. Due to the nature of my where I live it's a 3k boiler that I have no idea where I'd find the money from.

My mortgage is 2.9% which is a great deal (compared historically). But I will still end up paying nearly double the property price.

I do think I made the right decision buying, but I disagree it's the default 'must do' option.

Definitely worth it. Especially if you don't stretch yourself too much with your repayments.

You don't have to give up anything.

It will be our daughters inheritance and I dread to think what it would be like looking for rent money after retiring until the day I die.

Landlords rent houses to make profit OP. So by and large they stick margin on top of their own buy-to-let mortgage which you pay in your monthly rent. If you want to pay someone else's profit and holidays for the rest of your life because you've got the chance to save up and have your own mortgage but can't make the short term sacrifices, then carry on as you are. I personally also think landlords fanny their tenants around - visits for this, wait ins for that, daft restrictions and rules.

My mortgage is much less than houses on my street rent out for. Not only that bur ill pay nothing eventually whilst renters have to continue paying for as long as they live there. I wouldn't have a better life for not having a mortgage

Thinking longer term though - all that scrimping and saving, and then if you need to go into a home when you're older, you have to sell the house to pay the fees anyway. So what's the point in buying the house in the first place?

Hell yeah!

The kind of care home our house can buy will be far superior to the one the state will pay for. If they even still pay for care homes by the time we retire....

In a couple of decades, there will be no money to pay for housing care for the millions of pensioners who are still renting.

Around a quarter of people over 65 live in a care home. It’s not a given your house will be sold to pay for care and if your spouse is still living in the house they cannot sell it.

It's worth it if you don't want to be paying rent into retirement (provided you can pay the mortgage off!)

I do agree about staying in a job you hate because the mortgage needs to be paid. I'm currently in that situation, holding off on buying until I find a job/career I don't dread waking up for.

Our mortgage is £950 per month. The house opposite (smaller and not in great condition) was recently up for rent at £1350 per month.
We rented for years for various reasons. We were given notice in 3 different properties after a year as the landlord was either selling or had decided to move back in themselves. Which meant dragging our (then) 2 children to yet another new house.

Regardless of whether you have a mortgage or rent you still have a monthly payment to make and quite often rent is as much as or more than a mortgage. The difference with a mortgage is that you have an asset that should increase in value and at the end you have something whereas with rent you have nothing - in fact you are paying someone else's mortgage, putting money in their pockets.

I often think this, we currently rent & at the moment see no way of being able to afford to save for a deposit, yes we can save every last extra penny but we still have to live our lives before we get there. Unfortunately for us the only way would be if we came into money (not likely) or we house shared (no go for us personally) we like the idea of being able to own a home but we also want to be happy & enjoy our time, not saying this can't be done whilst saving but it it's not an option for us right now. I do find it difficult when it seems to me that you're only considered to have value if you own your home. I feel sometimes that I get looked down on for renting.