SURVEY - OK I know I am harping on today but humour me - IF mortgage rates hit 15% again would you be able to pay the mortgage and still pay bills, food etc.

[CountessDracula]

yes or no would do

Calculator here

Not asking for any figures of course

Yes as our mortgage is v small

(and also we will be selling it in about 3 weeks time eeek)

it would double our payments effectively
would prob be nearly half of our income
would be pretty tough!
um I dunno we might just scrape through with no money to spend on nice stuff ever
and we'd have to eat lentils every day

entirely hypothetical though....right??

Our current rent can support a £27000 mortgage at 15% over 25 years. That would buy diddly squat!

Our mortgage would go up to 57% of income, compared to 30% atm. We would be ok for a while as have some savings, but not longer term...

Oh dear, it would more than double to over £2k/month!

Short term I think that we could afford it by using savings but I don't think that we could budget it entirely from our current income. I know that if things came to it our parents would help us out if needed so even if we were in the same position after a year or so whenI our savings were gone then we would still be ok, assuming of course that market collapse means that our parents haven't lost all of their savings too...

Yes. But that's because our mortgage is relatively low because we're nearing the end and we're also overpaying.

Also, our first mortgage was at 12 or 13% and we've always remembered that, so we've always had a relatively low mortgage compared to what we theoretically could borrow.

thank god my rate is fixed for 3 years... hells bells..... I'd have to get a second job in a bar...

I refuse to worry for at least 3 years ..

Not on current salaries but within 3 years (when our rate ends) both dd's be full time school so I could work more hours so then the answer would be yes

(and without being horrible/mean we know we are going to inherit at least 1/3 of our mortgage from grandparents in time and that would be a big help but obviously would rather have them here)

god i wish i hadn't ordered those darn shutters ..

if my rent went up by 15% I couldn't afford it.

there's one around the corner from me now (all be it bigger and nicer for £50 a month more than mine, i'm hoping with all I have the landlord doesn't raise it at all this year - (hopefully will find someone else for next year)

Yes - we did all the calculations before we bought - interest rates have been that high before, nothing to say they would never be that high again. We actually borrowed less than half what the bank was prepared to lend us on a 10 year fixed rate which has eight years to run. Everyone thought we were mad agreeing to a 4.99% interest rate 2 years ago................

Within a year of us buying our first house the interest rates hit 15% (iirc)(the conservatives were in power then, I am very old ) and it was a bloody struggle to pay. It took all our wages and savings to pay it and afford basic food. We didnt have any DCs at the time and both worked full time.

lucykate look at the figures
interest only at that rate would hardly save you anything!

It is a myth that you can switch to interest only and halve your mortgage payments - that only works at around 5% interest rates

Just about, with both of us working. We wouldn't be leaving the house much except for work though, and to buy the tins of beans we'd have to be eating...

No. Arithmetically we could probably make it work. But it would spell a huge adjustment to the way we manage our finances and I'd rather downsize than face the stress, tbh.

Assuming we could sell

just curious - why are you asking this and other 'can you afford your mortgage' type questions.

Of course, everyone's payments would double. Because of where interest rates are now. Yes we could afford it as we are. It would be less than half DH and my net income. However it would have a significant effect on our standard of living.

I'd have to go back to work sharpish or it would be time to dip into our savings in a major way...

Yes, as we ignored the advisor's shady advice about what we could borrow and opted for what we could afford.

No certainly not - repayments would go up to around £1800 per month which is something like 80% of our current household income.

I could go back to full-time work, but what with childcare costs I can't see me being able to bring in enough to cover the essentials.

We would have to sell up and move back in with my mum and dad!

no we'd be buggered as ours would go up by about 2k, but i guess we would make i work one way or another

luckily we moved earlier this year and have a fixed rate for the next 5 years, but we are already cutting back on things because everything else is going up so much

cd - i know interest only, only saves us about £200 a month, but in those kind of circumstances, every little bit helps. that would cover council tax and a weeks food shopping.

No that would be our entire monthly income. I would have to get a job