To accept we will never move home due to the prices

[LioKa]

DH and I purchased our first home 5 years ago - very much a starter home, quite compact and always intended to be our first step on the ladder.

Yes, it has increased in value, but looking at what would be the natural next step in terms of property size - prices are just bonkers and we’d be taking on a much bigger Mortgage which would not leave much room for luxuries such as holidays.

We are both in decent jobs but realistically our earnings can only increase by so much in the best future. Likewise no help from family not that we’d ever expect it.

Has anyone else ‘accepted their lot’ in terms of moving and tried to come to terms with the fact it’s just not affordable?

Well it is affordable but it comes at a price? I.e holidays.

Don’t most people have to make sacrifices?

What are your reasons for moving? Bigger house for kids?

I have been thinking about this a lot recently too OP, and I also think we will be staying in our ‘starter home’.

I’m in London and the cost increase for a marginally larger home plus stamp duty… it just doesn’t make sense. At a push you could do it once but… it would be a year of earnings on stamp duty alone.

Plus with higher interest rates, the thought of a larger mortgage isn’t that attractive - or possible, frankly. How many years of my life / much of my income do I want to spend on just having the kind of house I’d like? It could be an extra £1-2k a month and… life is too short surely?

It’s a choice between holidays /clothes/ meals out etc or bigger house.

Acknowledging that holidays are a luxury is something I agree with the OP on. Not that many people seem to see it that way, hence the usual complaining about holiday prices.

Yeah - essentially that. We have limited living space, small bedrooms and a lack of storage throughout the house. Limited extension potential too and I don’t think we’d necessarily see a return on that investment when selling.

Do you have any options eg:

• wait a bit longer/pay mortgage down a bit
• move to a cheaper area
• buy something that needs a load of work and do as much as possible yourself

Do you need a bigger house? I don’t think it’s a given. If your house houses you and your family, why spend money on going bigger? Because it’s the ‘done thing’. I’d rather spend my money on holidays and enjoying life than sitting in a big house unable to afford anything else.

it’s not great. We needed to the space so went for the bigger mortgage knowing we would need to cut back on the expensive holidays. We figure that when the kids leave home we can downsize / move to a cheaper area and resume the long haul holidays if we want.

We have found the market is really stagnant. You need to be earning a really decent wage to afford a bigger house now and even then it’s almost
unaffordable. It takes months to move in our area where the house prices are sky high. Houses go
on the market, drop their price but still don’t sell. People take them off and remarket again after 12 months.

There might be another crash soon if this continues.

Limited extension potential too and I don’t think we’d necessarily see a return on that investment when selling.

I think people need to move away from the idea that you make a massive gain on property. Its not really realistic - the cost of doing work on a property tends to be almost as much as any value added unless you are in the trades and can do work for less.

How long is your cutting back likely to last - do you have younger kids? x

I agree - I probably should have been clearer in that even extending probably wouldn’t give us what we need longer term so wouldn’t be sensible given the finances involved too.

They may mean they won’t even see their money back though, which is a very real risk.

Albeit - gives you the space you need, so less important over the longer term.

Do,you have kids and if so How old are your kids? It might be easier if you get to a point with less childcare costs? You or dh might get promotions, etc?

Well I still live in the 2 up, 2 down I bought 22 years ago. Saw the back of the mortgage may moons ago. Why put myself through all that scrimping and saving again, just so we can live in a bigger house? Life is short. It can be over in a split second. Even if it isn't, you won't be on your death bed thinking 'What a lovely big house we had...'.
If you have a secure roof over your head then I suggest staying as you are and wringing every last drop of enjoyment out of life.

We have one who is under 2. Ideally would want to have another but we’d definitely need to move eventually for that so as sad as it sounds , that’s having to be a consideration.

That is a refreshing outlook and I wish I could see things like that to be honest.

Same, but I also feel lucky to have a house at all and a healthy, happy family. I looked into buying a 4 bed rather than tiny 3 bed and with most houses where I am it makes my mortgage 4x as expensive each month.

Similar outlook here though I admit we have a 3 bed semi. Though third bedroom is a tiny box room. We decided to stay put rather than move up the ladder and prioritise experiences, etc. days out, holidays, not having to scrimp, not having to worry. I wouldn’t change anything. We could have had a 4 bed detached, we don’t need a 4 bed detached. Paid the mortgage off in my mid 40s.

We’re still in our (small) first home.
we started looking at moving about 10 years ago, and came to the conclusion that we would be moving to a bigger house but with the same amount of bedrooms and a drive instead of on street parking by spending a lot of money and having to extend our mortgage term. So instead we stayed here, can afford a nice lifestyle and will be mortgage free by 50!

We did decide to stick at one as we felt the third bedroom wasn’t big enough for a child to be in.

I wouldn’t let extending put you off, if that’s what would give you the space required (even if limited). Improving your home shouldn’t be about what you gain back when you sell, but what you gain by living there.

Or, is it worth moving out further to get what you need size and price wise? If that’s achievable with commuting to work?

We stayed in our first home and have extended to create the home we want. We figure we will be mortgage free much quicker this way and the thought of not giving more of our hard earned money to the bank is satisfying.

A friend of mine who retired at 55 openly admits that they chose to stay in a smaller house with 2 kids which was a bit of a squeeze so that they could pay off the mortgage sooner and retire early. Top choice I think, she’s now galavanting here there and everywhere!

This was my first thought. I think when we moved we only ever had camping holidays for about 5 or 6 years. We overpaid as much as possible and things started to become more affordable as salaries rose etc. Then come the better holidays and other luxuries. It's always been this way.

You need to decide what you want from life. Expensive holidays or a bigger house.

A lot of places have cheaper slightly less desirable areas or parts of areas quite nearby, could you consider slightly moving area? That's how a lot of people get more space and how areas become "up and coming"!