Would you move?

[SunnySeaz]

Hi all,
Im a single mum and really struggling to make this decision.
My son and I have a lovely house, the right location, pretty much finished all over so it looks nice and there is no future work to factor in during the short term. But, parking is a nightmare. It really annoys me and without going into it too much I’d love either an allocated parking spot or a drive way.
Ive managed to save the fees to pay for the move but I’d need to increase my mortgage by around 15k to buy a small house that needs work (with a driveway), it’s just down the road.
Im 44 and would be taking my mortgage up to around £147k left to pay! Is that crazy at my age and on my own? I’m really not sure. I think it’s affordable. There would be a fair bit of work to be done at the new house too but mainly stuff I can do as we go along, I hope it would be the long term house so no rush! This current house and the parking situation makes me so miserable sometimes but otherwise it’s ok. My son will be happy wherever we are so it’s really just the hefty mortgage that concerns me. Help! Shall I just move and get us into a home we can be happy in? Or keep my savings, leave my mortgage as it is and accept the parking will forever be annoying and drive me slightly bonkers!!?

I wouldn't. I know that convenient parking is useful. God only knows how many times I've had to park 1mile+ away from my house on a Sunday because inconsiderate arseholes block my drive so I can't even get onto it. And that's only one day a week...every day would drive me crackers.

BUT, I would look at it like this - you'll be saving more money each month if you don't take out a bigger mortgage. That is money you can put away for your sons future or your future. Or for emergencies.

I don't see (public) finances getting any better in the short term or medium term - even next 5-10 years are probably not going to improve IMO - so why risk taking on an extra mortgage even if you can pay for it + a house that needs work doing (that's so stressful IME).

That being said, I guess it depends on how unhappy it makes you. if it's making you depressed, then move. If it's just really really irritating and gets you a bit down with how frustrating it is, I would stay

Thank you! Blimey, even with a drive you have problems!
Everything you’ve said makes perfect sense and I agree, it depends how much it gets to me and I have to say it’s quite a lot. I race home from work every night to get ‘my space’ outside my house but then if I need to go out as we’ve got no milk I’d rather go without than move the bloody car! Ridiculous right?

I know this isn’t a long term house, we’ve lived here 4 years and it absolutely should be fine for the long term future but I cannot imagine feeling like this for another 10 or 15 years, I’ll go mad! If I could train my brain to not give a monkeys about parking I would, there are far more important things I worry about I know!

If it is impacting your behaviour and feelings about your house so much I would move. Have you looked at how much per month that £15k would be? Think of it like a subscription, would I pay £x per month to park outside my house?

A house with better parking is likely to have a higher value in future and be easier to sell as well.

Thank you, that is such a good idea!
I will re do my sums and think of it like that. I’m pretty sure I’d pay a hefty subscription if I could always park my car rather than the daily battle of child, bags, laptop, shopping, dog etc etc traipsing down the road from wherever I’ve had to park! 😂