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

Do it. I just did similar to move to a more rural area with no neighbours. The peace it has given me is immeasurably better

As peoples behaviour gets more and more scummy because it’s their ‘ right’ to be scummy, I despair of being able to live anywhere without the misery of Entitled low lifers blaring out their crap and dropping litter in a trail around them.

It’s not selfish, it’s an entirely logical decision. Why wouldn’t you choose to let your kids grow up somewhere nicer if you had the option? £1000 per month on a mortgage is not a lot (at least where I live!) and our monthly take home is less than yours combined

go for it!

I’d suggest you are far, far more likely to regret not moving than staying where you are.

Based on what you’ve posted you can afford it and living in a better location has the potential to be life changing (in a very positive way) for the whole family.

Haha, £1000 extra a month ‘not a lot’. It’s like a different world on here sometimes!

We did something similar a couple of years back, went from a £550 mortgage to just over a grand. Honestly the difference in day-to-day stress was immediate, like within the first week. One thing that helped us decide was actually comparing the deprivation data between postcodes on https://localeiq.co.uk seeing the numbers side by side made it feel less like a gut decision and more like an obvious upgrade. With your income you can clearly afford it, and your kids will 100% notice the difference even if they can't articulate it yet.

Total £1000 , not £1500, right?

£1000/month for a 3 bed leaving you with £4600 pay in your wallet afterwards surely isnt a bad deal?

We did exactly this in October last year and we haven't looked back. We have a completely different lifestyle and we went from £500 to £1k per month. Our joint income is £3k so after bills and food it leaves us with £800pm. I wouldn't have it any other way.

It’s funny, because if you live in a nicer area, people raise their eyebrows and assume you are ‘ rich’ whereas in fact, you might have less disposable income than them, and a thin skin which meant you had to move!

It's so hard to go from a relatively small mortgage especially when you're risk adverse but this sounds like a no brainer, honestly, just do it. How much are you currently able to save each month?