Moving to a much cheaper area (but no job)

[OfUselessBooks]

Sorry I wasnt quite sure what to call this thread.

We live on the outskirts of London. Looking at what similar properties are on the market for in our area, we could have £180k of equity in our house. Houses in the small northern town I grew up in where my parents live start at around 130k and in the nice area from 180.

I've just lost my job. Husband is low paid and long term it will be difficult to stay in our house as I'm unlikely to get another job in my profession for a while.

I have an idea we could sell and buy outright in my home town. My husband would have to give up his job so wed both be unemployed to begin with. And of course we would have estate agents and removal fees to pay. My redundancy would keep us for 18 months if need be unless we had to eat into it for moving expenses.

Is this all too tight? I'm frightened to stay here as we will end up using all our savings and being unable to pay the mortgage eventually. But if we sell...we will end up both out of work to start off with. And I'm worried it will go wrong somehow. It feels so scary either way. We live in, and are looking at, small 3 bed, 2 rooms downstairs semis so couldn't really downsize at all. What would you do?

If you get enough for your house, you could maybe use some of the equity to tide you over. Teach Direct pay you I think to learn 'on the job' and you'd be a teacher at the end of it. You wouldn't have to stay in teaching - you could tutor etc.

Fees include; estate agents, conveyancing on both properties, stamp duty (would there be any on a £180K property?), removals, soft furnishings if needed in new property and a contingency for any emergencies. I would sell, move into parents whilst getting jobs which would give you time to look at areas etc. You'd be in a good position as cash buyers with no chain. Main thing is you'd have to be careful not to live off the equity as that would reduce it fast so getting jobs is crucial.

Thank you @Lightsabre thay is a useful list. We are beginning to think of it in much more detail and it's useful to have an idea of the costs involved. I remember last time how they added up so quickly and we were first time buyers then.

I will have my redundancy (15ish k) and we have around half that again in savings, so plenty to live on as long as we don't end up eating into it for fees. I reckon thay could keep us for 2years if we were careful, and that's without any benefits we are entitled to and if my income protection insurance pays out.

It's so hard making decisions at a time like this. Everything is so uncertain. I will look onto teaching, it's something that does appeal to me although I have a lot of friends who have left the profession.