How long did you stay in your property before moving?

[SnowBells]

We're buying a house - it's a "nice" house, convenient for work, but not our "dream" house (which we currently can't afford - at least not in the region we're in). We plan to stay in this house for 5-7 years, during which our careers will hopefully continue to go up, and then move to a forever home. In those 5-7 years, we will be overpaying our mortgage, and I plan to save about 50k in that time that shall go into the new home.

Is that a viable plan? Did you ever buy a house you knew you were staying in only a few years?

Yes, we are here 4 years and same thing, career has gone up and mortgage cost gone down so we are saving and overpaying. When we sell we will be in a much better financial position had we continued to rent ( which was my preference! )

it's how it used to be done, and I personally don't get people trying to buy their 'forever' home first off.

*than had we continued to rent

You will find that more and more people are like us where we bought our 1st homes later when we were ready to start a family home thus skipping the 1st and maybe 2nd step on the housing ladder. I was 29 when we completed last year and we were looking for a 3bed house. I did not fancy moving into a 1 or 2 bed only to end up moving within 5yrs what with the related costs.

We did not buy on the nicest road in our town and the third bedroom really is a box room but the house gives us flexibility for the future that I'm sure we shall stay here for at least 10yrs. It's on the best bus route to the station for me, DHs family is within walking distance and a good nursery and primary school 5min walk away. Basically we might stay in this house till the kids are well into primary school.

We would like to in the future buy the same house that we have on a nicer estate/road but if we are stuck for some reason like job loss or the prices of the next houses are unaffordable, at least there is the space to hopefully cope and accept our lot.

Were moving next yr & bought our starter home 5 years ago.
It will be our forever home. I had always guessed 5 years but it was looking unlikely until we got some money start of the year. We are rennovating a property so it will be done exactly to our requirements.

If our starter home had of had space to extend for a utility room, sunroom & garage we would have stayed as we love the area but a second living space, laundry room & a garage have became our must haves since living without them! Especially for a growing family.

I stayed in my first property (shared with friends and then dh) for 20 years before we sold up. It was in no way intended to be anything like that long, but at least it meant that we had a good chunk of equity to give us a deposit.

We've been in our current home for a year and hope to move again in four or five years. Whether that happens or not depends on many things, but by then we won't be paying nursery fees, hopefully will be earning more, and should be able to afford the sort of place that we just couldn't quite this time around.

We sold our first home after about two and a half years. We'd planned to move after a few years but maybe ended up doing it sooner than we thought as space became an issue once we had DS. We bought somewhere that was a bit cheaper than the top of our budget so that we could overpay (we went on a 19 year loan term to begin with).

We sold for £10k more and had paid off enough that we had double the original deposit plus enough to pay the costs from moving. If we had been paying rent instead we wouldn't have had increased our deposit as I was on maternity leave then paying nursery fees which wiped out what we'd been saving before.

Our other main reason for moving though was to get a mortgage before we had our second dc as we wouldn't have been able to borrow as much with 2 lots of childcare. We've got a 5 year fix so that both will be in school before we apply again.

We also got a 30 year term this time which is scary but I hope we can reduce that in the future and maybe overpay a bit when I go back to work again.

It worked for us I think. We could have stretched ourselves when we bought the first house though and might have been able to buy in an area we are now priced out off. It still wouldn't have been our forever home though so we would have had to change location anyway eventually (but would have made more on the sale).

First house - 4 years. Only planned to stay there until we had children.

Second - 8 years

Current - less than a year, but hope to stay for many, many years.

First home (2 bed maisonette - bought as a single girl) : 6 yrs+

2nd home (our first family home together) : 6 yrs

3rd home - still here 11+yrs on.... would quite like to move but can't envisage decluttering enough to let people view!

Good to see all the comments.

See - the thing is, DH and I bought fashionably late (why oh why!!!). We are in our mid-30s and this is going to be our first home. Possibly because DH was in higher education until his late 20s, and it took a while for us to be able to buy. It seems that in our generation, that's quite common. I should have bought on my own, but I always thought I'd only buy once I'm with that "special someone".

By the time we "upgrade" we will be in our 40s.

But the next move will hopefully be a forever home.

We've moved on average every 7 years or so over the last 24 years. We now want to downsize due to DS about to leave home but have found ourselves renting again after having mortgaged properties for all that time. We can cash buy a semi retirement home but not in the South East where we currently live. We've had our forever home but need to move now.

first- 7 years
second- 12 years
this one 1 year so far - this is the dream house though so a long, long time, but probably not forever as it will be too big for just me and dh and we will downsize eventually

First home 2 years - we moved for work.
Second one 2 years - realised we needed a bigger one for the children that I wasn't going to have (changed my mind).
Third one 2 years - realised that the children we had were going to get bigger and need a garden (yes I should have planned ahead a bit).
We've been here 5 years now and don't see us moving again until they've left home.

EndoplasmicReticulum

Gosh, how much STAMP DUTY have you been paying? That's one of the reasons DH would like to keep moving to a minimum...

First flat in early twenties we lived in for 7 years

Current house we have been in for a year but should be able to stay here for at least another 5 years.

Its a good sized 4 bed house so theoretically we could stay here forever but if money eventually allows we may move for more outside space or more storage (no garage or cellar in this place).

Its normal to move up the ladder one rung at a time. If we move again though it will be to our intended forever home (unless its a move due to a change in circumstances).

That said, once we old, we'll downsize for sure to something smaller so I guess we have 1 or 2 more moves left at a minimum!

Snowbells - not a great deal, cheap houses! But dread to think how much we wasted on estate agents, solicitors, moving costs etc. etc. Still we're staying put for a while now.

we've moved about a bit (emigrated, and then moved within the new country)

1st flat - 2 yrs
2nd flat - 6 yrs
emigrated
rental - 1 yr
apartment 2 yrs
house 4 yrs
this house - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaages if I have my way. We built it, so we love everything about it.

god that's awful written down, the expense!

I am selling my first house after 5 years. It was meant to be first and forever home (I cannot afford moving every few years, it is just too expensive), but for unexplained reasons I have never settled here.

My 2nd house will be commuting compromise for me but next to an excellent secondary school for my DC.

I will probably stay until the kids finish school. I don't believe in "forever" home anymore.

First 3 years
Second: 6 and a bit years.
Third: 2 and 2 months.
Fourth: hopefully forever.

We've moved a bit but started in the 80s when you had to keep moving or you couldn't afford to
1st home - 21 months
2nd home - 2 1/2 years
3rd home - 8 years
4th home - 15 months (relocated with job)
This one - planned 5 years to do it up but we are still here 17 years later!

We did something different. Saved for many years and bought our first home v recently with a huge deposit, and we are renovating it. It's a small 4 bed at 1400 sqft, but we are extending and planning to stay here until we've paid it off completely (we have a small mortgage for London). Only then will we consider moving, but I'm tempted to stay here mortgage free long term and invest in property elsewhere in the world. I don't feel we need to keep up with the jones and keep on upsizing the house. And I do hate the idea of paying £££ in mortgage interest.

We don't have kids yet but as we are in mid 30s this needs thinking about soon. I really don't fancy moving house with kids, plus the cost of moving is so high. I'm hoping that our final renovated house will be big enough for one maybe two kids and we can stay put. But as I have no idea about how much room kids need, I may be completely wrong in my planning!

We bought a few years ago in our early 30s, our first home and it's our long term plan to stay here, it may be our forever home or at least for 10 years. Agree that more and more families aren't able to buy until their 30s, we're slightly younger than average for FTBers in London. We don't plan to have any more dc (just one) and the area is great so there's no reason to move, except for a major lifestyle change, e.g. emigrating.

I'm not very good at moving house, I'm an accumulator so I have tons of stuff and hate packing! Also house prices are so high here that stamp duty is pretty significant so it's worth avoiding it if you're able to stay put.

I think the only flaw in your plan is that you mention in your OP that you'll want to overpay your mortgage and climb in your career in the next few years, then in your next post you mention you're mid-30s. If dc are in your plans then that would have to happen soon and it's hard to focus on your career and overpay mortgages with young dc! Our dc is old enough now that childcare isn't necessary but the cost can be crippling, especially if you have more than one.

We stayed in our first house for just under ten years, moved into new house in the summer, mainly for schools for DS, guess we will be here for five years, see what happens. Probably stayed to long in first house, should have moved before having DS when I was working FT along with DH.

I first bought at age 30 on my own although in a relationship with (now) dh. Moved after 4 years for new job. Bought again on my own and dh moved in. We only ever intended to stay here for a few years but it's now been 10! Moving soon, fingers crossed, into what we call a 20-year house. Can't wait!

Rented flat with DP who became DH about 4 months (moved out when family friend returned from overseas as it was her property)

Rented 2 bed house with DP who became DH from a friend who had moved out to live with their DP. We were there for about 18 months.

Bought our first house & lived there with DH for five years prior to selling.

Lived in our next house for 10 years before selling the house and emigrating.

Lived overseas in one rental for three months. Moved again whilst overseas for my husband's job and rented again for a few weeks.

Purchased the house we're now living in, been here for just over three years. Is it forever ? Not if I have my way !

blueflag

Understand what you mean, but one good thing I've noticed about having DCs later is that we earn enough to be able to continue our careers. Some of my friends who had kids 5 years ago had to give up work as the cost of commute and childcare was larger than one salary alone. They are only getting back into work again now that kids are going to school, are earning maybe half my salary, with not much room for upward movement. They also have less holiday entitlement than me. By climbing the career ladder first, we can actually afford to overpay mortgage, childcare/school fees for one child, save and have holidays. Promotions are (hopefully) coming along in the next few months for both of us, so we can overpay and save more before another DC comes along.

Also, the nature of the job further up in both our careers is "easier", as you rely a lot on skills you've accumulated over the years. Not that learning stops, but you have a more upper level view of the forest, let's say, rather than having to look at every single branch, root and bark pattern of a tree - very stereotypical, but true in our case.