Home improvements or move house- WWYD?

[oopslateagain]

We have a 5-year plan for improving our house (a 3-bed mid-terrace), new bathroom this year, driveway/gutters next year, extension and new kitchen in 4-5 years.

The house across the road from us has just gone on the market for around £15k more than we would get if we sold this one. They have already done all the improvements we would be doing, and the decor is mostly my sort of taste.

We are seriously re-thinking our options - do the work on our house over the next 5 years, costing us around £30k, or move 50yds now and walk into a house with the work already done - but adding £20k to our debts right now in one go.

I haven't rung our mortgage company yet to see if it's feasible, DH and I just looked at each other last night and said "What if..."

WWYD?

If you could definitely sell your house for 15K less than you pay for the new one then it would seem a no-brainer to me. However, presumably your house will be on the market around the same time as the other one. Won't people look at yours, think the same as you and reduce the value of yours accordingly?!

Ours would actually be at the right price for this area; our neighbours want to sell quickly as they've been offered a house that they really want. Our houses are pretty much the same except ours has an older kitchen and bathroom and no extension.

I do take your point though. Something else to consider.