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

no but ours is fixed until 2011 so I'm hoping that things will improve a bit by then

just checked against the calculator and even at 12% the repayments would be more than my wage

NO

would be about 75% of DHs takehome pay.

and even if I did go back to work when baby is two weeks old , our childcare costs would eat most of my take home so we wouldn't be any better off, although we might be able to eat the occasional egg with our diet of beans on toast.

We would be forced to sell and probably at negative equity too

why the fuck did I click on this thread? I'm depressed about it now!

My beloved spreadsheet says we would have a shortfall of £75.22 but that we could recoup it by cutting some other things.

This is just scaremongering and isn't going to happen.

And if it did you could always reprofile your mortgage over 30 years or more...this mortgage rate would go hand in hand with very high inflation so the mortgage payments would be peanuts after a few years anyhow!

Yes we could - we bought on a fairly small mortgage because DH got stung by negative equity and high interest in the past - which he survived, but it made us very conscious of the risks involved

Nope!

The remortgaging over a long time period is a card we have up our sleeves as our mortage has less than 14 years to run and we are both 35.

horror! Wish I hadn't looked at that. In answer to your question- no (in case you hadn't gussed). Off to lie down now, heart racing...

Some historic rate info from the BBC

Changing base rates
1985: 14%
1986: 12.5%
1987: 10.5%
1988: 9%
1989: 14%
1990: 14%
1991: 13.5%
1992: 10%
1993: 6%
1994: 5.25%
1995: 6.25%
1996: 6.25%
1997: 6.25%
1998: 7.5%
1999: 6%
Dec 1999: 5.5%

quite a variety of rates over the years

Yes, but we live in a flat and could do with more space. I'm very glad we didn't move last year though

and here's more recent rates from 2000 to 2008

Gizmo - would you? I would rather hang on to my house and live on cheaper food, kids have no activities, lose a car etc.

THe market would eventually recover and you'll still have the house.

They would have to drag me out of my house kicking and screaming!

If I had to I'd get an evening job - carry on with freelance work in the day and work on a checkout at night (please God it never comes to this! I've worked on a checkout before and I don't want to do it again!)

Yes - have just paid ours off

yes we could - would go from around 25% of DH's takehome to nearer 50% I think, but doable if we cut back hard in other places. And I could work more hours if needed

Yes, because I am both uber-cautious and relatively well paid.
I guess it is of interest because it gives an idea of how widespread problems may be if things get really bad...
I have always been aware that at low interest rates, even small increases can have a dramatic impact on repayments.

I love my house, GDG, and it would be a shame to leave, but I love my relationship more.

To afford our mortgage at 15% would mean moving to a 'war footing' where our entire salaries went on cost of living, we'd be living on beans and I'd have to find cheaper childcare.

We could tolerate it for 6 months maybe, but if we had to do it for longer I think it would cause an intolerable strain between us. There are plenty of smaller but OK houses within our school catchment, so we'd be better off holed up there until interest rates came down.

That's depressing. Would just about double, and be just about 100% DH's salary

We could do it if nothing else changed.

Interest only would only save us 150/mth so not worth doing that.

Yes would be absolutely fine. They could go up to 30% and we would be absolutely fine.

Always providing we were still employed, of course. BIG proviso ...

Yes, because the single most sensible financial thing DH and I ever did was to pay off our mortgage when DD was one. We have sat tight in our crappy 2 bed flat with no garden, refusing to trade up because we preferred the luxury of one parent at home. And now we are, if not laughing, then at least reasonably cushioned from the effects of the credit crunch.

Ours would double.

Academic though really.

True Gizmo - I can see that. I just hope it never comes to that!

God no.
Would be about 90% of our salary. We live in a two up two down cottage, not much downsizing to be done either.

No because it would actually be the same amount as our income. I feel like sticking my head in the oven at the moment.