AIBU to ask for realistic mortgages and incomes from average/middle income houses?

[SmallHouseEnergy]

Live in an affluent area, but in the smallest houses (3 bed end terrace, good sized garden. Bedrooms are all small, 2 singles and a small double. 1 bathroom, 1 living room, 1 kitchen - again, small).

1 DC, me and DH. Hoping for another DC asap. TTC.

We have plenty of space to extend massively to side but astronomical costs for extensions so may not for a long time.

DCs peers all have big houses, 4/5 bed, massive size. One even has a mansion and pool.

We have been and got quotes for extensions, and also figures for what we could borrow on a bigger house. Being told we could go up to £400k house which seems like insanity. We earn £85k for reference joint, per annum. Current mortgage is smallish, £160k.

I am after some perspective for average/middle earners outside of London please. If your household income is £70-90k per annum, what’s your mortgage and monthly payment roughly? Does it work? Or are you stretched?

we are torn between doing a medium extension and adding an extra £60-90k mortgage or moving to a bigger house possibly an extra £120k for next ‘level’ up not even more bedrooms but just an extra bathroom and a dining room, with a decent garden still. Aib

Approx 85k combined household income, three children. Have just moved and increased our mortgage hugely up to 300k , £1400/month repayment. Literally just moved so we will see how it feels in reality but looks feasible on paper! We were in a 3 bed semi and this is just how much it costs to move to a 4 bed detached in our area.

90k income, mortgage is around £1150 per month, total left is about £185000. We don't have loads left at the end of the month, but if the kids need a new bike we can buy it. No big holidays each year, couple of UK caravan trips in term time.

We earn circa 90k and live in a 300k house. Mortgage repayments are 600pcm but we overpay and were lucky with rates when we took out the mortgage. Interest is only 1.3% atm but will increase dramatically when we remortgage.

We added a downstairs shower room and a garden room. Cost 30k around 3 years ago.

We are in East Anglia. Owe around 125k ish.

similar income. 300K mortgage from a 3 bed end of terrace to a detached 4 bed barn. I've definitely felt the pinch as we moved 5 years ago and so the credit crunch hit Technically loads of wiggle room but house also needed work doing so obviously that is expensive.

Im a bit outwith your bracket asked for regarding family income but ive calculated our annual mortgage payments per year is 18% of our gross income and it feels steep, maybe look at it as a proportion of your earnings

and bills really went up

It’s really personal choice on what’s more important to you.

Our household income is about 85k and we have 150k left on our mortgage. House is two bedrooms in a less than average area.

Payments are £600 odd yet we’re over paying by nearly double because we can afford it.

We’ve toyed with the idea of moving to a bigger and better house but then asked ourselves why we would be doing it. We have enough room here (yes we could always use more, who couldn’t?!) and our lives are a lot more stress free because we know if we needed to we could literally cut our monthly mortgage payment in half.

We know that a bigger and better house will come in the future but we don’t want to rush to it and spend our child’s early years penny pinching and worrying about enjoying ourselves at the cost of a bigger house.

Small mortgage big life is the moto I’m living by at the moment.

Stop worrying about what other people have and really think about what priorities are important to you.

We live in the SE in quite an expensive area as it’s a commuter town. 3 bed semis here are 375k. We live in a fairly small 4 bed detached that cost 525k. We have about 300k left on mortgage and currently pay £1400ish per month. Household income is 80k.
Bigger 4 beds are 600-650k.

We are in that income range and pay £1,100 a month. We borrowed around 250k.

I wouldn’t want it to be any higher. Will you have 2 DC in childcare at the same time?

I agree. We could borrow up to about £400k. I wouldn't want to get anywhere near that level. Things are doable borrowing half that but we don't feel flush.

70k income - pay £1000 a month mortgage on a house worth £300k+
Not much left to pay off as I’m 62

What would the medium extension bring in terms of space/extra room?
Does that include the expense of redecoration, furniture etc?
Would the extension solve whatever you feel is less than ideal in your current home?

Our joint income is about 95k. Our house (4 bed detached which needs work) is worth around 750k, with a 250k mortgage. Payments are about £1500 per month. About to start a 150k extension (because our heating and electrics need an overhaul, our kitchen is falling apart and too small) , we have saved 100k and adding 50k onto the mortgage so payments will then go up

Thanks all so far
@Crumpetring we would likely have 1 DC in part time childcare and 1 in wraparound from school maybe 1/2 days p/w. However, as @DaisyChain505 says we need to think about our priorities I guess. I want more space - mostly it is that I want 2 bathrooms, a dining room and maybe utility. I don’t want any more than 3 bedrooms really. I don’t need a massive massive house or super fancy. But my area means that this next step up is £100-120 k more. I also want to be part time after hopefully having a DC2, as I want to be home!

My priorities vs my reality all do not match up sadly.

@TisEyeSingle story large extension, with kitchen/bathroom/dining space and maybe utility if we can get a clever design, would solve things generally. Bedrooms would still be small but downstairs living space would double.
Cost would likely be £90k all said and done, maybe even £100k. Still cheaper than moving but a lot of stress

May I ask why having 2 kids in a 3 bed house would require an extension?

Could you put a massive garden room in the back for more space for when the kids have friends over/office space?

Combined income is 79k, 2 children in nursery and pregnant due October. Mortgage £1.3k, about £220k left on it. Mortgage and nursery combined takes just under half our take home pay. We live to a very tight budget, don't holiday abroad, clothes on vinted, very old car etc. But we have enough to live nice lives, nice days out, kids don't miss out on things. Both kids (twins) start school in 2027 so we will be £1k ish richer per month which will honestly be life changing for us.

Mansion with pool or 4/5 beds is probably out of the question in terms of what you have described. We moved heaven and earth to extend our house to accomodate 4 kids and IMO is preferable to moving, especially if you like the area and you have lots of space.

We're about that, before tax. Mortgage gone up to 900 a month. 85000 and10 years left. 4 bed. OK area with rough bits. Our house would cost a lot more further up the hill or out towards Cheshire.
2 kids a couple of years away from uni though, and unable to get past application for pt jobs, so all getting a bit expensive again.

We earn about £80-85k between us
mortgage is £1300 per month
bills, food, kids stuff - it’s expensive

although we aren’t high earners we try to be savvy

lots of our kids friends have much bigger houses than us too. We could borrow more
but I wouldn’t want too.

This is a good way of looking at expenditure. Have an idea of fixed outgoings and work out how much extra you can afford. Especially if you’re thinking of going p/t and still want to have extras/holidays etc

My sister & spouse earn about 90k between them & have a mortgage of about £320k. 2 primary DC. Side hustle bringing in about £200 a month extra.

Its tight at todays rates, she never has much money spare after bills.

I think borrowing 4, 5 times joint income was only do-able when rates were rock bottom and food and energy were cheaper. You are better keeping to 3, 3.5x max.

£95k joint income, pregnant with first DC. About to increase mortgage to £325k (they would have given us £460k which really did feel insane!)

Mortgage is 1600 a month - 4 bed semi in nice village. Joint income of 70k ish plus side hustles which bring in varied amounts. It’s tight with 3 kids but house needs no work and it’s a forever home so we went for it. I wfh so very low fuel costs and we have a small loan on my car - husband has a company car. We save all year for a modest holiday abroad (camping) and don’t go without but we don’t drink and rarely eat out. I am aiming to set up the career ladder over the next couple of years and when our fixed term comes to an end in 3 years our equity will have increased and hopefully we can get a better rate to decrease the payments a little - both of which will give us some more breathing space. We prioritised saving up a 5k non touchable emergency fund first when we bought the house 2 years ago and have achieved that. I would like to double it as a priority but also want to enjoy life too!

combined household income of 100k after tax. Mortgage of 65k on a 300/320k house. Next house up in our area would be 500k+ for a fixer upper which we can’t afford to refit with a kitchen/multiple bathrooms/landscape the potentially neglected garden…so we are looking into a circa £75k extension. Got teens who will need support through uni soon, and no family wealth or expected large inheritance so it feels sensible not to overstretch