AIBU to double my mortgage to move to a nicer area

[Wallabywaysydney]

I need some opinions as im spiralling, but weve just put our house on the market and im panicking about whether im mad for doing so.

We live in a decent sized 3 bed house, but in a bit of a crap area, the primary school is awful but we've secured a place in an out of catchment school. We have had 3 sets of bad neighbours next door over the 15 years weve lived here - filthy and loud ones, extremely loud ones and now quiet but messy and i think drug dealer and user ones. My anxiety around what their doing is constant, and I get a pit of dread in my stomach whenever I come home from a trip away. Im sure the last ones gave me PTSD as I constantly check for movement and noise and worry if the neighbours are in the garden, and if I see the extremely loud ones on the street I get flashbacks and panic attacks (I experienced these neighbours during severe PPD/PPA - for context r.e the extreme reactions)

However our mortgage is small, £500 a month for around 15 years. We are trying to move to a nicer area, but its going to double our mortgage cost and length of time.

Am I mad to move? We will halve our savings but still manage to put some up.

I just need some unbiased opinions - thank you

If you can afford the new mortgage payments then I think the peace is completely worth it, and would absolutely move elsewhere.

If you dislike where you live then do it.

Of course you can't guarantee your neighbours wherever you live but you know they are not good where you are now and (fingers crossed) they will be better in a nicer area.

That mortgage sounds doable and after a few years of paying it down, you will wonder why you didn't do it before.

Good luck.

If you're going to have a better quality of life for multiple reasons and can afford the move and the ongoing costs, why not? We've just moved and while it's probably not costing us more to live here the whole moving thing cost a bomb and we were in rental for a year, and we're spending a fair bit getting the new house sorted, but I don't regret anything because I'm much happier here than I was there. Worth everything!

It’s not mad to move, definitely not. If you are confident you can manage the increased cost of the mortgage to move to a nicer area, then I’d do the same as you.

We moved from quite a nice new build housing estate to our present home.

Nothing like as stressful as your street - but I was getting fed up of taking my toddler to the little green space opposite our house to play, only to find the yobs from the end of the estate (sorry, yes the social housing end!) had not just been making a racket the last night, they’d been drinking and left behind a load of trash, those little nitrous oxide whippets, cans and even worse they clearly deliberately smashed bottles by lobbing them around.

Both our catchment primaries were crap, although the local secondary school was excellent.

It wasn’t unbearable but we were just unbelievably glad to leave and we love our new home. It’s a little bigger, a lot further from London, and the area is amazing. I have neighbours who have lived here 30 years and they were nervous when we moved in that we’d be a bad element! Which was fun and I have spent 12 blissfully happy years in this house, love our neighbours and happy paying down the big mortgage!

Your new neighbours aren’t guaranteed to be any better, just be mindful of that x

You can’t put a value on peace of mind however you also can’t choose your new neighbours.

What is £1000 as a % of your income?

It’s a pretty ordinary looking mortgage nowadays.

I’ve always found living in a nice area improves your life in a myriad of ways.

Do it.

We moved from a mid terrace in a not so great area to a detached in a nice area and honestly it changed my life.

I didn’t realise how much we were moderating our behaviour before and how much they were affecting us.

Honestly, we could have bought in a cheaper area and occasionally I wonder whether we should have prioritised being mortgage free earlier. But we can afford the mortgage, even if we won’t be mortgage free before 60, and I genuinely love our road. It’s such an amazing family-friendly community - there’s a great school for my son when he starts in September, a lovely green and shops at one end, and country-side at the other end.

This was exactly us ten years ago. We went from £500 to £1000 a month. I’m very risk averse so it was a big thing to me. But I’d lived in deprived and dangerous areas my whole life and wanted more for my children. We took the plunge. Money was tight for a while, especially as I stayed home for a few years before the children got to school age.

However, time passes quickly and now it is the best thing we ever did. Within one hour of being in the new house, in a lovely area, all my fears of the new big mortgage fell away. Because we were so happy to finally not be living in a bad area. It changed our lives and our house is now worth a lot more so if we ever need to downsize to free up cash ever we can. Il so glad we stretched ourselves when we were at an age to do so. We also spend a lot less because the area we live in now is so beautiful that we live a very outdoorsy life which costs very little. When I lived in the bad area, we’d spend money to escape the stress and trauma of where we lived.

Agree with this wholeheartedly

If you can afford it then it’s a no brainer.

We did the same, doubled our mortgage payments (taking them up to a third of household income).

While the primary reason was to move closer to a city for transport links for teens, a very strong secondary reason was to get away from a hideous neighbour who was making my life hell.

Look at all the costs though. We were lucky that several aspects of the new house dramatically cut out outgoings (solar, commuting cost, etc) so the net impact was less than we thought.

I also hadn’t realised until after the move that we had been spending money day to day just to get out of the old house (day trips, coffee shops, weekends away), but now that we love the new house (and are home-bodies by nature) we’re not doing that and are saving money.

How would anyone know ?

What your earnings are ?
What your job security is like ?
What your health is like ?
How much equity you would have ?
How much disposable income it would leave ?
Whether you are likely to receive inheritance down the line ?
Whether you have family members who would help out in a crisis ?

In general mortgage affordability checks are far more likely to come up with a realistic assessment of whether you can afford a mortgage or not than randoms on here.

You can expand this analysis by adding in some things additional things that mortgage affordability checks may be less detailed on.

If your jobs as secure as they can be then go for it. But it’s a shit time in general for selling - are you confident you’ll be able to sell at the price you need?

I would 100% move.

Doubling your mortgage isn't a big deal. £1000 a month in most areas wouldn't even rent you a 2 bed flat!

I'd happily pay a bigger mortgage if it meant getting rid of a neighbour like that!

Just do your research carefully when you move!

Our base take home is £5000, but my husband can earn anything from £300-£1500 overtime a month in addition(but obviously we cant guarentee that). Thats with me being around 90% fte to fit school runs in, it'd be £5300 base plus overtime if I worked 100% but I'd have a bigger wrap around care bill.

We can afford it, it just feels selfish losing £500-£700 a month to have a bigger mortgage because im worried about what the next set of neighbours will be like and the kids growing up in the most deprived and rough ward of our town. Like will the kids really care all that much

I try to be out the house as much as possible, this past weekend i felt bad as I was reluctant to spend time in the garden with the kids I didnt wanna hear the ndn noise and smell of week

Do it. It will be worth it. We’re so much happier after moving to a detached house in a better area. We had awful neighbours in our last semi-detached. Now we hardly hear anyone! It’s bliss.

Our jobs are secure as we can get. Im a bit nervous about if reform were to take over as im public sector, but I guess public sector is always at risk

The kids will be influenced, impacted and judged on where they brought up. I was scared of a particular neighbouring family growing up and never felt quite safe.

Move, don’t look back

We were mortgage free but took out a 100k mortgage to move to a nicer quieter area.
sometimes I think wouldn't it be lovely to have much more money but the reality is what would you spend it on, there is only so much annual leave you can take to go away.
Sitting in my peaceful home or garden listening to the birds not neighbours is so worth it .

Sounds like you are absolutely miserable where you are and you can definitely afford it. I'd say it was a no brainer.

Having read your updates re finances - definitely move! Your new place will be an investment- it’s not wasted money.

You can afford it, and the house will be worth more if you ever go to sell it, so it's not like the money will be gone forever.

However it sounds like you aren't moving a million miles away, so how confident are you in the new neighborhood? Maybe that will get messed up (usually by bad landlords that don't care about who they are renting to or about the area).

I advise caution when you actually buy the new house, don't jump into the first thing. Visit it morning, noon and night etc. etc.

It’s the reverse of selfish. Your kids will benefit hugely from being in a better environment and from you being more chilled. Go for it - the new mortgage is still a much lower than normal percentage of your income.