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Original poster

How much a month is your mortgage?

90 replies

Beakyok · 02/08/2017 20:18

Apologies first for such a personal question but feel it's not something I can ask friends in RL!

Basically my husband and I are in our early 40s looking to buy our first home. We have a substantial deposit but I'm worried the monthly repayments of £1500 is too much on a monthly income of £3500.
Have we got our sums wrong?

OP posts:

lorali · 04/08/2017 09:20

Ours is £800 and our income is £2500, it's a bit tight but we're just going into our last year of childcare cost before DS starts school

mousehole · 04/08/2017 11:13

This reply has been withdrawn

withdrawn at poster's request

honeysucklejasmine · 04/08/2017 11:15

Income about £2k, mortgage is £400 ish.

A fuck tonne less than it would be if it were rent, which is what's so disgusting about the whole housing market.

Batteriesallgone · 04/08/2017 11:21

Just bear in mind OP that rates are so low at the moment.

Could you afford it if your rate went up to 7%?

blue25 · 04/08/2017 23:00

Joint income just over 5k. Mortgage £1086. We overpay monthly as well.

Doublechocolatetiffin · 04/08/2017 23:09

I'l admit it didn't sound too bad to me - I'm sure that when we were first buying we were looking to keep the mortgage payments at less than 50% of our joint income. Maybe I'm wrong though, it was London and I know we used to spend a huge percentage of our income to rent a tiny one bed flat

Our mortgage is now at 44% of my dh's income. We have stretched ourselves and we do have some saving in case of emergencies.

Longislandicetee · 04/08/2017 23:14

Long term average mortgage interest rates have been at 5% if you look at the last 30 years, though that will probably trend down if you look st the last weird 5 years. Interest rates can only go up from where we are now, so if you have reached your earning potential then what do your finances look like if the rates were 5%. If you would be stretched then I would say that you're taking some risk. My personal calculator has always been assume you're paying no more than 1/3 of your total net income at 5%. Anything above this would make me uneasy, but I am risk averse.

Ragusa · 04/08/2017 23:15

Income about £4700 net, mortgage is £1850 p.m. Plus childcare of £400 per month. Food, bills, insurance, commutung costs of around £300 pcm, kids' clubs, night out each once a fortnight and there ain'the much left over. Altho we do save £200 per month as a holiday fund.

Poisongirl81 · 04/08/2017 23:24

Income about 3k joint. Mortgage £300.

somewhereovertherain · 05/08/2017 10:11

£600 mortgage 4K income. 180 council tax. 3 bed semi ideal for us.

Wouldn't want to more than double our mortgage.

KirstyJC · 05/08/2017 10:25

We are overpaying a bit, but I think as others say it is more about your situation than anyone elses.

For example, how much rent are you paying or would you be paying if you don't buy? Don't forget, if you pay your mortgage off before you retire then you have no monthly housing costs. If you continue to rent, you will have to pay rent even after you retire. So it may be worth tightening your belts now.

Also it is def worth checking you could afford a larger interest cost - when I took my first mortgage rates were about 7%!

If you're not sure if you can afford it then put aside the amount it would cost each month for a couple of months and see if you can do it or not.

AnneElliott · 05/08/2017 19:58

Ours is £1800 with a take home pay of £6k.

Yours does sound high, but it depends on what other expenses you have and how many years you'll be paying it.

Evewasinnocent · 05/08/2017 21:01

Mortgage is £1200 a month - but I overpay an extra £1000k a month and will change this to £1500 extra soon (trying to pay off quickly and that is the max I can do). At the moment we do have a high monthly income - but if you don't have any other major outgoings - can you live on £2k a month? If you are in London / SE you will have to pay around £1500 in rent.

Evewasinnocent · 05/08/2017 21:04

The only thing I would say is house prices do seem set to fall - will that bother you? Is this the forever house for you?

RebeccaJane12 · 05/08/2017 21:06

Mine and partners income a month is about £3k. mortgage a month is about £375 but we put a £65k deposit on the house!

bbcessex · 05/08/2017 21:28

Hi OP.. what's the mortgage term you're taking out? I think I'd bear that in mind. Will you want such a high outgoing in your late 50s / early 60s?

I guess you also need to factor in council tax, utilities, commuting costs etc.. that won't leave you much contingency.

marleyandpea · 05/08/2017 21:46

Our mortgage is £515 and our income is roughly 3.1k. We are younger though and have a 35 year deal, as you say you may have reached your earning potential too, I wouldn't take it on in your position tbh. Good luck in whatever you decide :)

Winebomb · 05/08/2017 23:58

We have a monthly income of around 5-6k our mortgage is £975 a month.

We are looking to double it when our LO goes to
School. We pay £1200 a month for childcare because we live in a naice area and that's all there is (4 days a week), our mortgage would be a lot more but we sank savings and inheritance into it.

Plus the food and cars (we both need them to work and earn what we can) plus petrol/diesel) etc. Then regular bills..

LadyLapsang · 08/08/2017 23:02

Off set mortgage, paid less than a cup of coffee last year and that was only because we each moved out our ISA allowances without telling the other. Could repay tomorrow but haven't as might want to draw down money for DS to boost what he can purchase. In our twenties, however, we were paying a large percentage of our salary on the mortgage and when DS was young and I was working PT we had to budget.

lilybetsy · 10/08/2017 17:52

42% of my monthly take home. Far too much .

squishysquirmy · 11/08/2017 12:32

Ours is about £600, and dh's take home pay is close to £2,000 a month. It was over £800 a month when we first bought a few years ago, but I was working then and our income was much higher. We are lucky in that prices are not too crazy where we live - we could have afforded a bigger house but I am so, so glad that we didn't; we were able to make large over payments, and most importantly still able to pay the mortgage when I became redundant. The house we are in is not the biggest/nicest we could have afforded when we bought, but I love it anyway. I have never held with the "always stretch yourself when buying" advice dispensed by some. (Its different when stretching yourselves is the only way to get on the housing ladder, though).

Please think about how you will manage --if- when interest rates go up (although this should be factored into the lender's affordability criteria anyway).

If you can still get a suitable property with a mortgage that is less than the maximum you can currently afford that is best imo: In the short term, it means you can afford to make overpayments (saving masses in the long term) and in the medium term it will mean you can still afford your mortgage when rates go up. Which they will - hopefully gradually at first but they are going to rise.

Desperad0 · 11/08/2017 12:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

coastalchick · 12/08/2017 17:52

27.5% of our monthly net and we put a 20% deposit down. I currently only work 4 days a week - quit my job last year so know I can go back to that if we need and I could be earning another 40-60k a year (but doubt I ever will as it was far too stressful and I am now pregnant with first DC so want to focus on motherhood - will still have to work though). OH not yet at top of his game - he can rise another 2 positions at work so we are hoping that even if interest rates rise we will be ok (bought new house in april this year and fixed for 2 years so should pay off enough to offset any rise by the time that ends). Though I'd love to give up work entirely - we could probably afford for me to do it but bang would go holidays, eating out etc etc plus obviously not then future proofing ourselves if I don't work (I'm almost 39 and OH is 34).

Luckily my MIL is going to have the baby 4 days a week so we don't have to pay for childcare - if we had to pay for that I'd prob have to up my hours to 5 days a week (if they'd have me for that many hours) or go back to stressful job.

Fairylea · 12/08/2017 17:56

Our annual income is about 35k and our monthly mortgage is £320. We downsized in order to make our mortgage smaller / better quality of life etc - moved from London to Norfolk. (3 bed semi worth about £210k, we had a large deposit).

Unless you absolutely have to I wouldn't want to have such a large mortgage. It frightens me. Having experienced bad health and redundancy I like the fact that our mortgage is affordable even on benefits if we fell into rough times (and this has happened before! - sickness, disabled child, income support etc). But I know not everyone thinks like that!

40andFat · 12/08/2017 21:24

It sounds ok to me for now but you have to think about the future £1500 can easily turn to £1800 if interest rates increase. If you expect to earn more in the future then this should balance out. But if you are planning kids to go part time or have child care costs it's really tight.
It's all about forward planning.

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