Should I move home now?

[BobbyNW]

Hi all, Not sure if this is the right subforum but couldn’t find one that fit exactly. I’m also new on here so apologies if in the wrong place.

I’m 36, getting married next June.. Me and fiancé hoping to try for kids soon after the wedding. We currently live in a small terrace house, which we bought together a few years ago. It has one decent sized bedroom and another which we currently just use to dump stuff in - could fit a cot but not much else. If we have a child, we”d want to move fairly soon after.

We tried to sell to get the SDLT relief which we now won’t do. However, we have had an offer accepted on a house in a really nice area that we would like to move to eventually (or one of the villages nearby). House costs three times more than our current house. BUT it isn’t perfect - it’s a three bedroom, the third bedroom is seriously tiny, the second one isn’t massive and the kitchen is small also. It does have a garage that could be converted and a good sized garden, good sized living room and down stairs toilet. The area is nice.

Problem is, the mortgage is around £1,000 a month more than what we currently pay. We currently pay just over £500 a month. We can afford the extra £1,000 a month, but it would mean little spare cash for holidays, clothes, meals out etc.

Those things are luxuries we know, but while we haven’t got kids, we are now trying to decide whether we enjoy those luxuries (and also save up) and move someonewhere nicer in 2-3 years time when we need the extra space. Our current place is also within walking distance of work and cafes/restaurants/shops etc. whereas the new house is more rural.

If we did move now, we”d want to extend or move again in a few years anyway as the third room is so small and are hoping to have two kids. The more expensive new house will probably increase in value more, but with the mortgage being so high and the interest would mean we’d pay off around the same capital and probably even save more if we stayed where we are for 2 years. My fiancé is expecting a promotion and I’ve just had one, so in a year or two we hope to afford a place which might be more perfect than the one we are looking at now.

Would you move now, be fairly tight on money for a while but have the slightly nicer house (that we’d probably want to move from in maybe 5 or 6 years anyway), or stay put for a couple of years and move to an even nicer house then?

Definitely stay put. No question. If you have a baby it will sleep in your room at first anyway. I'm assuming you've thought about the cost of childcare too?

Having a new baby is stressful- you really don't want financial worries on top of that- and ideally don't want to be doing renovations either!

Plus moving twice is very expensive.

Sort out your current house, the ‘dumped stuff’ etc and make it nice. Create loft storage or whatever.

See how your budget looks once you have a baby, childcare costs etc.

Move when baby outgrows the small room.

The house you have found sounds as if it needs a lot of money spending on it in addition to the mortgage.

Moving to an isolated rural location before you know what life with a baby is like may not be the best idea.

Walking distance to a shop and good primary school improve the quality of life with small children no end, IME.

@EdgeOfTheSky

Sort out your current house, the ‘dumped stuff’ etc and make it nice. Create loft storage or whatever.

See how your budget looks once you have a baby, childcare costs etc.

Move when baby outgrows the small room.

The house you have found sounds as if it needs a lot of money spending on it in addition to the mortgage.

Moving to an isolated rural location before you know what life with a baby is like may not be the best idea.

Walking distance to a shop and good primary school improve the quality of life with small children no end, IME.

Thanks.

The current house is pretty much sorted - has loft space and for two of us is fine.. We”ve had numerous offers well above asking price, including from foreign investors, as it’s a great location for renting to young professionals. The “dumped stuff” is just ironing board etc - you’d struggle to fit a proper single bed in there with much else, but could fit a cot/small child’s bed.

And the new place isn’t isolated - it is still in a decent sized village/small town with a Waitrose, a tesco express, butcher, couple of little bakeries and cafes, a big Sainsburys and Aldi less than ten mins drive away, and only 40 mins from the city centre. At the moment though we’re a 15 minute walk (about 6 minute Uber) from the middle of a large city centre - it’s more of a move to the suburbs than to a rural farm cottage.

The new house is five mins walk from a very good primary school and is in the catchment area for two very good secondary schools as well. Our current house is not in an area we particularly like, no great schools nearby - it’s main upside is that it’s relatively cheap and has easy access to the city centre (where we both work and can meet friends for food, coffee, drinks etc.).

I wouldn’t want to spend much on doing the current house up here (other than minor decoration and routine maintenance etc.) as we will definitely move in the not-so-distant future, as we don’t really like the area.

The house we”ve found probably wouldn’t need so much work doing immediately - certainly for the two of us it’s fine (other than redecorating in our own style as you would when you move). But if we had a kid, it doesn’t really give us much more space than we have currently and would need to extend/move again fairly soon after.

@foreverlobsters

Definitely stay put. No question. If you have a baby it will sleep in your room at first anyway. I'm assuming you've thought about the cost of childcare too?

Having a new baby is stressful- you really don't want financial worries on top of that- and ideally don't want to be doing renovations either!

Plus moving twice is very expensive.

Thanks - fair point about the stress. We have factored in childcare and reduced maternity pay, and could just about afford it, but it would definitely be more comfortable where we are currently.

We had originally had an offer on our place accepted about 6 months ago and were hoping to get into the SDLT relief period. We’ll now miss that completely and our buyer’s mortgage valuation was a bit lower than he’d offered, so we’ll be about £20k worse off - that was going to be a nice little reserve fund to help, and would probably have just about made it worth it. On balance, without that, and the added stress as you mention, I think I’m coming round to staying out.

Check whether you could still afford the house with interest at 7%.
I'm thinking there will be some serious inflation over the next few years.

@Rollercoaster1920

Check whether you could still afford the house with interest at 7%. I'm thinking there will be some serious inflation over the next few years.

Are you suggesting that’s a reason to move now or hold off? If it went that high, wouldn't we arguably be better moving now and getting a long-ish fixed term interest rate offer? Then if we can’t fix it at an affordable rate when that expires, sell if necessary?

Flip side, if interest rates shot up, meaning demand falls and house prices stall/fall, I reckon our current place (very much a “starter home”) would still be in decent demand as people try to get on to the housing ladder taking advantage of the relatively lower house prices, while we might snaffle a bargain on our purchase as prices stall. Not sure you can predict such things really..

In your position I would move as soon as you can - but not to the house you've had the offer accepted on, it doesn't sound really suitable for you. I think it would be a good idea to fix a 5 year mortgage now while the rates are low, and if they do go up you have half a decade before it will affect you. Also if you can get a mortgage based on what you are both earning now before childcare etc needs to be taken into account that would be sensible too.