if you live in a big house, do you regret the size of your morgage

[Lardlizard]

Or are you glad ?

we opted to have a smaller house and higher disposable income. The next bracket up ie a move from a 2.5 bed semi to a 4 bed detached is theoretically doable but would be a real squeeze, and probably mean the end of holidays, theatre trips etc. I just don't want to be poring over my bank statements every month juggling each penny.

the downside of this is of course that our home is only a very modest asset.

We bought a small 2-bed flat 2 years ago (first time buyers). Despite initial reservations, I now think it was a great decision to buy small. We both had low incomes and paid high rents in our twenties. It is lovely don't have to watch every penny anymore, and still be able to build up some savings.

Perhaps we'll move to a bigger place in 5-10 years time, but even then I cant imagine we'll buy something that costs >100k more than our current place.

We have a large 4 bed extended semi and our mortgage is £798 a month, we live in a northern town so more house for our money. I sometimes wish we'd bought a smaller house and had a smaller mortgage but then on the other hand I have a house that's going to big enough to live in for quite awhile without having to move, so no I don't love my mortgage payments but I'm glad we went bigger.

Our house is big, you get a lot for your money aboard, and I’ve got a library room which I’ve always wanted, but we will be moving back to the UK at some point, and leaving my library will be my only regret when it comes to the house.

Our house is big, you get a lot for your money abroard

Yes - when we moved UK to US we doubled the size of our house and the mortgage actually went down £50k. We also moved from an awful school district in the UK to an excellent school district here.

we have a huge mortgage but could have borrowed another 40k, glad we didn't.

hugely regret it as it now means we are working until 67 and are not saving as much nor are we been able to diversify our investments beyond minimal company pensions as spare money is put into new kitchen and flooring.

we should have stayed where we were now with hindsight but we got greedy and felt we deserved a big house when really it means not having the lifestyle we previously had and that causing stress.

we have a large-ish house on a lovely gated estate but only have a few thousand in the bank that would cover 4 months mortgage and living costs. luckily we dont have car debt or any finance debt on kitchen/bathrooms/sofa etc. no loans either.

the stress of having to work longer and in well paid jobs is huge.

In a four bed with good sized garden do not massive but decent sized. Just as we were applying for mortgage my rather generous pay slips were not included. This decrease in budget has worked out well as it gives a lot of air around decisions we make now.

moved from a 4 bed but actually quite small townhouse to 5 bed detached. mortgage is £2500 per month.

my thoughts exactly@toycar

Don't regret it, but I do miss have a higher amount of disposable income.

We are in a 4 bed detached. It wasn't a huge stretch mortgage wise relative to our incomes. We've been able to overpay & our incomes have grown so now it's very manageable. I dont regret it at all - in fact at times we idly wonder if we should have stretched a bit more - our house has a relatively smaller garden, typical of a house that was once quite a bit smaller & has been extended somewhat clumsily. If we had stretched to the max we could have bought some thing on a bigger plot & with a better layout (designed as a bigger 4 bed, rather than a smaller house extended).

We bought a large house, we would be able to live in one half the size (admittedly we wouldn’t have a spare room for my mum to stay). I don’t regret it: we have plenty of space (playroom for DS etc). When DS is older and mortgage is paid off, we will be able to downsize and buy 2 flats outright (one for us and one for DS). So to me it’s sensible: even if we don’t have a massive amount of disposable cash atm

I massively regret it. Love this house but it’s big and old and damp and no matter how much money we through at it, it never seems to improve! I absolutely fell head over heels and talked my husband into buying it, even though we are mortgages to the hilt

Same.

We live in a house big enough for us but in an expensive area. Recently extended so its a 4 bed semi with large kitchen/diner. House worth about £550k, mortgage payments are £950. Could afford to double the mortgage easily but don't want to. I want to enjoy my life. I enjoy holidays, socialising, eating out, theatre, concerts etc too much to give that up. No way would I personally stretch myself so that I was counting pennies each month. We plan to overpay the mortgage which is more valuable to us than a bigger / more expensive house.

This is really interesting reading. We are currently moving from our first bought home to our family home having had a little one last year. Our financial advisor was trying to encourage us to spend almost double what we have decided to spend, to buy the big dream house. It was tempting but I didnt want to become tied completely to my mortgage, as I enjoy holidays, days out, concerts etc. Sounds like listening to many we made the right decision. We are moving to a bigger house, that we can live with plenty of room in as a family but nothing too flash.

We live in a large house, which was fine when the children all lived at home. The mortgage was paid off about ten years ago. Now I feel it is too large, but can't be bothered to downsize.

We have a bigger house than we really need, many bedrooms, multiple reception rooms, lots of outbuildings.

I regret it sometimes because: it's really cold, something is always breaking/going wrong, nothing is ever simple to fix due to being listed and stupidly complex boilers and electrics, you could throw £200k at it and you wouldn't notice the difference.

If we had spent half as much we would still have a lovely house but my DH pretty much insisted on this one.

I also think that if we had a smaller mortgage I would be more comfortable. I could never hope to earn enough to pay the mortgage, and so if anything happened to DH we would have to sell ASAP.

That said, it is truly beautiful and in many ways a privilege to live here.

Every house we bought, we bought to the limit. Last house was a very large mortgage, but we have been here 15 years and paid off lump sums when we could, as well the monthly payments. We now own about 95% of our house. Should have been paid off but crappy endowments bought in the 80's early 90's didn't pay what was promised. Still no regrets though.

Huge house, equally huge mortgage here. We'll still be paying the mortgage in our mid 50s but I don't regret it at all, we've been here for three years and I still get a buzz when I walk through the door.

Absolutely no regret whatsoever.

It's an investment in the future, and in the meantime it's a home for my kids. I could do without the ridiculous mortgage but the area is overpriced because of London commute and excellent schools.

Worst comes to the worst, we could always sell it, or let it, or get a lodger.

I would be miserable in a small property, it's important for me that everyone has their own space at home. It's also helpful, even if totally not essential, to have space for guests. As we can afford it at the moment, it works.

The mortgage was paid off about ten years ago. Now I feel it is too large, but can't be bothered to downsize.

The thing is, downsizing can be a nightmare: most people just want to reduce the number of rooms and get rid of the ones they need less, but would like to keep the size of their main rooms. Sadly, in most cases it means ending up with everything smaller. I honestly would struggle (and i sometimes wish my house was bigger!)

Don’t live in a huge house, but sometimes wish we brought a cheaper house and have the mortgage paid off by now. I sometimes think what we could do with that extra money each month - holidays, replace the car, etc,

I don’t regret it - It is a riskier though, to have all your main money tied up in one thing, but most people my age must be in that boat.

My only regret is that we'd have been mortgage-free by now on the three bed semi we previously lived in.
In this house there's still another 16 years left on the mortgage although we hope to pay it off in half that time. It's manageable though, it just seems a large amount compared to the pittance we paid on our last home.

We'd started to outgrow our previous home though, the third bedroom was tiny with an odd shaped low ceiling so there wasn't even room for a full height wardrobe and there's no way our now 19 year old son could've managed in that room now. Plus we have regular guests now so need a spare room and an extra bathroom.

I love our house, it works so well for us, especially now our children are adults and need their own space. For instance, there's a second sitting room which they can use when they have their girlfriends here, or our oldest can shut himself off in the quiet of the study to do his lesson plans etc.

Not the mortgage, just the scale of the house and gardens.

I always felt I had 'people' in and around my home so never quite felt relaxed, constant tradesmen, gardeners etc.

Wish I'd downsized years ago.