AIBU to ask if you could afford the house you live in?

[IamnotH]

Just had house valued for remortgage and it's transpired that we could actually afford the house we live in!

Bought in 2016 for £185k. Borrowed an extra £50k for building work. House just valued at £380k.

This isn't a stealth boast- we're an average nuclear family, 2 kids, both worlds full time. Our house isn't massive (SE)- just a normal 3 bed. It actually means we're stuck here unless we move areas which we don't want to do.

AIBU to ask if you could afford the house you live in if you were to buy it now?

Yes. Paid £250,000 in 2015 and it’s now worth £310,000. We bought well within our means as we prefer to be in the position that if one of us loses our job, the other wages covers the mortgage. We are also both lucky to be in jobs that have been unaffected by Covid.

No. We bought 16 years ago for £380. We've done some major work to it and I reckon it's now worth about £1 mil. We have a very healthy family income, but if we were starting out, there is no way we could afford our house. You have to be already on the property ladder or absolutely loaded to buy a house on the streets near me. We were exceptionally lucky to buy when we did and as the DC's get older, I am very concerned about whether they will be able to buy a house.

Bought 7 years ago. House doubled in value and we were overpaying every single year, so only have modest mortgage and only 10 years left.
No, we wouldn't be able to buy our house now - SE London :(

Yes, I could. That said, I only bought it three months ago 😉

I rent but I could afford to pay a mortgage on the house we live in. The mortgage payments would be less than the rent. But we are expected to stump up 20% deposit and it's so hard to save that much.
Vicious circle.all the years I've been renting I could have had a house paid off

No.

Yes.

But only because we couldn't really afford it when we bought it and got big pay rises pretty much as soon as we bought it.

Nope!
Bought 18 yrs ago for £400k (not our first home) and now worth £1.3/4m. Not even close. Could prob only afford a 1 bed flat in my area if starting from scratch now, which is depressing for the next generation of buyers. Totally changes the demographics of an area.

We could because my husband has been promoted and his pay has gone up considerably since we bought it 9 years ago. If he was still earning similar, then no.

We could afford ours but we've only lived here for 4 years and our salaries have increased too in that time. Purchased for 165K in 2017, and now it's worth approximately 215K.

No. Its doubled in value in 5 years due to renovations (we mostly did ourselves or on a budget)

Yes. We bought ours in 2008.

Our (well mainly DH’s as I barely work) salaries have gone up, so we could now afford more than our house is worth.

No I don't think we could.

What was meant to be our forever home cost £275k in 2008. Big house (Scottish prices). Bought at top of market before prices fell.

Decided to move to the country, and in 10 years had only made about 20k!

House we got in the country was
£320k and we were pushed to get a mortgage despite having massive equity due to being 10 years older, and having 3 kids. They are strict on affordability these days. This house is now worth 400k. So not a hope in hell we could buy it now, and we've only had it 2 years!

We got lucky with timing on our first house and doubled our money. Bought a wreck and did it up. There's no way we could afford to buy it now.

Our house has increased in value by about 25% since we bought it in 2014. That's a combination of house price increase and having done building work.

DHs wages have increased a lot in that time but mine have decrease as I now only work w few hours per week, so overall our income is about the same as when we moved in.

If we sold, we could get a mortgage for the amount of our current mortgage.

No!
Bought fir £175k 15 years ago, had large extension and renovation done, worth £700+ k now so without huge down payment we couldn't buy as FTB

Nope. We bought our new home in 2017. Paid £225k, now worth around £310k. Our old flat that we now rent out was bought in 2007 for £87k now worth just under £200k. Four years ago I had two jobs. I'm now self employed and have a disability as a result of a car accident. Definitely couldn't afford now.

Absolutely not. I live in a HA property in London. It’s a Victorian on a normal street rather than on an estate. Just had a nosey on right move for similar properties within a few streets of me. Cheapest was 950k. It’s purely the location.

No, we bought it seven years ago, and have fully renovated, with the increase in value in that time and the increase from renovation we would not consider it in our price range now if we were coming at it fresh.

@RaiderOfTheKitchenCupboard

We could because my husband has been promoted and his pay has gone up considerably since we bought it 9 years ago. If he was still earning similar, then no.

Nope, couldn’t do it just on a mortgage (dh is sole earner)

Could do it with a 10% deposit 😀

Sorry raider

Didnt mean to quote you

Bought for £159,500. Just sold it for £282,000. We could afford it now.

3 bed SE, we're moving to a 4 bed (hopefully) and that shoots the price up by an extra £20k just for the extra bedroom. It is just affordable now.

Might just be me, but anyone else intrigued as to what @Devlesko lives in?

I think we could probably afford our house now, just about, but we wouldn't have money for anything else!

We paid cash for it a few years ago, I estimate it's gone up about 20%.
We couldn't get a 95% mortgage for it because we both work part-time now.
Though If we were first time buyers we'd be working full time and still have to save a big deposit.

@thirstyformore

Might just be me, but anyone else intrigued as to what *@Devlesko* lives in?

I think we could probably afford our house now, just about, but we wouldn't have money for anything else!

From previous threads I think @Devlesko is a Romany Gypsy.