To ask about mortgages?

[BFwoes]

Not quite sure how to frame this. We bought in October of 2023, with an interest rate of 4.54%. Our mortgage payment is £2,700 on a £625k house, and we overpay by £600, every month.

Whenever I read posts/comments on here, everyone seems to have a much lower mortgage than us. Did you all buy ages ago, when interest rates were much lower? Do you all have much more inexpensive houses? Or have we missed a trick, somewhere?

We moved in 2021 and took a 5 year fix at 1.69% - the rates have massively increased in the last two years

Ah the wide-eyed faux innocence. Do you realise your monthly payment is more than most people's salary? This is so tone deaf OP

Jesus. We'd be bankrupt if our mortgage was that much.

We bought 8 years ago, mortgage is less than £450pcm and fixed for 10 years, but our house is valued at less than yours by a considerable amount.

Yes, we bought in 2019, and our low interest rate is locked in until November of this year. House prices have gone up £100k in our area. We'd be priced out if we were buying now, and quite frankly I would refuse to part with that kind of money for this kind of area.

The average UK house price is £287,782 which is a big part of your answer. And you bought approaching the height of mortgage rates as well as around the peak of property prices so most people moved/bought before you did and would have been likely to be able to access a lower mortgage rate and a cheaper property, bearing in mind your property is now over twice the average in the UK. We bought 11 months before you and were able to fix at 3.34% just as rates started to rise. We were also able to make some equity from the house price rises of the previous 5 years as well as overpay on our previous much cheaper property, so our basic mortgage payment is about 2/3 of yours for a slightly more expensive property. I am well aware that this is far higher than for the majority of mortgage holders.

Your house is more expensive, or people bought in 1996 when a house cost two and six and you could get two bungalows for a shilling.

Look on Rightmove, see what houses cost in the NE, or what houses in your area sold for in 2001. That’s why their mortgages are lower.

We bought a house for £920k with a £575k mortgage in 2016. Currently owe £450,000 and payments are £2600 per month. There are so many variables including when you brought, where you bought, the size of the house etc.

If you are intelligent enough to earn that much you can surely work out the answer 🙄

Isn’t the average salary around 30k so around 2k per month take home pay. So of course the majority of peoples homes are going to be a lot more “inexpensive” than yours 🙄 or they bought their house 30 years before you when prices were cheaper. It’s not rocket science.

I mean my house is worth £375k, mortgage is £140k and I pay £660 pcm. Large amount of equity is due to inheritance enabling me to by my exh out and making a profit from our previous house sale plus been a home owner for some time

Our mortgage rate just went up to 4.15% £3100 per month house about £900k I think you’re about average but it really depends on where you live and how much the house is worth obviously!

Forgot to say I just remortgaged at interest rate of 4.39% for 5 years. In 2021 we fixed at 1.79% for 2 years 🤦‍♀️

625 sounds like a lot of money and it is, but you won’t get much than a semi for that where I live. If you want a family home that’s what you’re needing to spend

Mortgage amounts are dependant on lots of different things- your location, how long ago your purchased property, the interest rates, loan to value. It’s quite simple when you think about it. 625k in some areas would be a relatively standard three bed semi, I’d literally cry if I was paying £2700 a month for that. But I’m northern - no one has a mortgage that large here.

It’s a nondescript mid-terrace house in a nice-ish SW London suburb. Nothing particularly interesting. I’m fine with the price, and we can afford the payments, I was just interested in
how the latter stacked up.

Naturally, this has enraged the terminally offended. 😊

I’d say £625k is quite an expensive house. What deposit did you put down?

I imagine most people can’t afford a £2700 a month mortgage. We could but I’d feel very uncomfortable financially.

I have almost this in mortgage amount!! If you live down south you really can’t buy a family house for less than 600k !! I think MN forgets how much swing there is across the U.K. with house prices!

Good for you for overpaying - we can’t now it’s changed which is a shame. But it is what it is!

I live down south and we have a family house for £500k…

I sold my teeny 3 bed last year for 525. Here, you need 600k at the very least for 4 beds.

Your mortgage payment is more than mine or DH's monthly salary. There's absolutely no way we could afford that. Ours has gone up to £1200 and we're struggling. HTH.

We have a 3 bed terrace. I didn’t know a family house had to be four bedrooms…

Well you’re in SW London! MyDD rents there and with her housemates pay £4K pcm for an ex local authority, basic end of terrace.
I’m 52 so mortgage repaid some time ago but was £500 at its peak. House only worth £400k now and is a 1930s extended 3 bed semi with garage and large garden..

We’ve got 4 kids so that’s probably why.

my 3 bed was fine for just me and my 2.

We have a higher mortgage than you but a lower repayment as we have a lower rate (bought a year earlier than you). However we definitely overpaid for our house as it was the height of the panic buying in the market, if that makes you feel better!

There will be a mix of reasons for people paying less - bought their houses for less (perhaps many years ago), better rates, longer mortgage terms etc. it's really not comparable.
In our street ours is one of the only houses which has sold in the last 10 years, most people have been here for decades since the houses were built. Their mortgages will be much lower or non existent although in the same house