To ask if you own your home outright, how much is it worth?

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I’m trying to work out whether we are being idiots by not just downsizing to be mortgage free. DH seems to think mortgage free means settling for less in most cases as you could just go on and on borrowing for bigger. I like having a reasonably big house but with that comes a hefty 250k mortgage. Are those mortgage free usually owning less than 500k homes? We are in our thirties for context.

£200k, mortgage free. Just bought stbexh out, so it’s mine all mine!!! 4 bed detached but I’m in the NE.

Mortgage paid off in our 50s. Moved house a couple of years ago, cash buyers. House now worth about 750k.

Paid ours off in the last six months. Worth about 950k. I’m 43.

Our goal by 40 is to have a passive income big enough that it cover whatever mortgage we need for the house we want. Is that more viable option for you than being mortgage free?

I think it massively depends on location, job and what sort of house you want.

I’ll be mortgage free by 40. Three bed semi. ‘Nice’ area of Kent. DP and I could upsize but we don’t want to or need to. House is (currently) worth £700K. We’ll only have one child and he can’t WFH so we won’t need extra space etc. I WFH but use the dining table because it’s just me and I’m closer to food that way

On the other hand my parents live in a four bed detached worth £900K and only paid it off a few years ago (60 at the time)

I’m mortgage free, house is worth maybe 250k. Am in the north, it’s a large Victorian 3 bed semi. Yes we could have had the bigger, 4 bed detached but i didn’t want the bigger/longer mortgage.

Yes smaller, but I have two at £250k and £300k, both owned outright.

I would urge anyone to pause before making the move to bigger and bigger property. Larger bills and decorating costs,, more furniture required and often large gardens. Think about the time and cost involved versus a smaller / shorter mortgage and money left to enjoy life more at a younger age.

Mortgage free mid 30’s due to inheritance. House is worth approx. $600,000.

About £500k I think.
Houses on my road don't go up for sale very often.
Mortgage free but neither of us will see 60 again.

Mortgage free when last moved, aged 61 at the time. Current value I think, approximately £280-300,000 but I haven't ever had the property I'm in now valued.

We became mortgage free a couple of years ago, early 50s.

Property is worth about £600k now was £445 when we bought it about 18 years ago. Can't remember exact starting mortgage amount, but we overpaid a lot when interest rates were low and put two small inheritances into it.

Ours is about £375. We have been mortgage free for 11 months now. It has made a huge difference to our lives. I want to downsize but DH doesn't. He point blank refuses.

£1.2m. I am mortgage free and have been since my husband passed away when I was 47. I sold our large family home in SW London as I couldn't pay the mortgage, but the equity got me a house half the size in a less than expensive area. Moving around a bit more, making a couple good investments, and now I'm back in London in a three bed terrace that cost the same as our original big house in better area did over 20 years ago, but I'm mortgage free, and own two other properties mortgage free (one bought after my parents died and left me some money).
If he had not died, I reckon we would have become mortgage free in our 50s. He was a high earner and would have paid the mortgage down as fast he could.

Just sold ours for £500k. We are downsizing to one for £380k so have about £100k of fun money.

We are both 42. Mortgage free. Home is worth £380k

We will be having a small mortgage next year to build an extension though

We bought our house outright at age 27. We paid £350k and it’s worth £450k now, ten years later. We will probably move in the next 5 years.

I’m 45, still owe about 230k on my mortgage, house is now worth £900+k, I’ve just inherited a mortgage free house which I plan to sell and use some of the money to pay off my mortgage which only has 4 years left. I bought my first house when I was 24 and my plan without the house inheritance was to always downsize later on rather than pay off the mortgage as fast as I could…I still wanted to have some life! With the cost of energy/ bills, council tax especially downsizing feels appealing.

House is worth £280-300k
Mortgage is £75,000
But won't be MF until official retirement age of 67.Ive already downsized once and to do so again I'd have to move away from the area. Im 53 and a single parent with one still at university at living at home.

Mortgage free, cos we're old! House is due to go on the market soon at £500k or slightly higher.

We also own another property (late in-laws house ) and that was on the market at £310k, but we're living there temporarily so it's off the market.

About £300k.
Paid £139k for it in 2001.
Overpaid as much as we could, but also had periods where we were only covering the interest, but paid it off through income and scrimping last year.

I didn't even buy my house until I was 33!

I could be mortgage free now ( 58!) but have chosen to have a mortgage in order to live in a much bigger house with a large garden a 5 minute walk to the beach. My mortgage has given me freedom.

Very much not mortgage free, but we could be if we moved to a cheaper area. We have about £600k equity in a house worth £1m and are 36. In fact we are about to borrow more to extend the house.

At this point we’ve got 20+ years of work ahead and small children…I’d rather stretch to have the biggest house we can afford knowing that if the shit hit the fan we could always downsize, and indeed we will do later when kids are older to free up money to help them with deposits etc.

I also prioritise paying into pension for tax relief reasons.

I am mortgage free (late 20’s) and honestly I would always pick to be mortgage free if I could. I am not mortgage free in the most centric area of the city, but I LOVE where I live and not having to worry about paying a mortgage means that I actually get to save 90% of my earnings post tax and therefore live a pretty good life for my age it also means I am now saving to either buy a second home cash (or with a mortgage I have not yet decided) this time in the epicenter of the city.

Don’t want to give figures for my current place but I have had it for pretty cheap and it’s already raise about 25% in value since I have bought it. I could sell to help buy bigger right away and be more centric. But I love where I live and absolutely don’t want to do that. I will stay where I am at even if I buy a second place in the epicenter of the city because I would lose the amount of space and the room distribution I have here as you obviously get less for your money in the center than you do 2 miles away.

So currently my goal is to stay put (for many years to come), I know my current place will continue to increase in value and the price I paid for it means it will never be a bad deal. Buy a second place in the center that I will rent out (likely with a mortgage so it can pay for itself) and once this center flat increases in value enough sell it to buy something bigger/better. My goal is to buy several properties in different cities/countries and sell most of them when I get to retirement age as I am a generation where getting any kind of pension seems unlikely so my goal will be to auto-finance my retirement with the homes.

In all cases going mortgage free is always nice. Never having to worry about housing yourself is a huge deal right now, in our current economy. So I would never give up on my mortgage free home to buy bigger or get a mortgage. So if I were you, I would downsize.

you can always sell and get a mortgage again if needed be but honestly not having a mortgage is life changing.

80k, I'm 29, bought it with my share of the equity from my divorce, its actually a lovely 2 bed with a garage and a garden in a nice area. DP and I will trade it in for a mortgage in a few years so our family can grow.