To upsize or not

[EternalPoinsettia]

I am eternally in two minds about whether to move up the ladder, or just accept a smaller house than I imagined I'd have, and pay off mortgage sooner. The latter appeals to me more at the moment due to a health scare and deprioritising work, not feeling as ambitious as I used to.
I'm 39, married one DC not having more. We have all the space we technically need, but would like an additional downstairs space to relax in and a bigger garden for having people round. The jump to the next stage house is a lot, meaning a big increase to mortgage. We overpay our mortgage and could have it paid off by the time I'm 52 if continue at this rate.
Problem with houses I see is they have to be quite a lot more expensive to improve on some aspects of our house (some room sizes), south facing garden etc, and make the move feel worth it. But I'm scared of making that jump.
Would love to heard any views from people who have faced a similar decision at this stage of life, either way, and whether they have any regrets. Thanks

We are sort of in a similar situation with regards uprising. I would focus on whether there are things that make you unhappy with your current house, rather than what's the next one up, if that makes sense. Do you have people round - does the small garden actually prohibit it? Or is the more space a want rather than a need?

We are a in our mid 40s and have paid our mortgage off, but considering moving and getting a new mortgage. However, this is due to noisy neighbours. It would be nice to have more space/parking/detached, but if it were just these things then we'd stay, despite the fact that we could get further up the ladder if we wanted to.

This is us! Ex council terrace in great location with massive garden. Next jump up 100k to gain not a huge amount.

We are staying. The only bit that concerns me is this is a cheap house in a cheap area so may limit future options but I like it here so no point second guessing the future.

We had the usual extension tacked on the back and a darker middle room. We swapped the kitchen back to centre of house, knocked out the awkward utility to open up the space and light. It gives us an additional sitting area at back (with hidden appliances) adjoining kitchen and separate lounge.

Non of it is huge but it works much better for family life. Is your existing footprint working as well as it possibly could?

Thanks @OUB1974 we do have people round and our garden is lovely albeit small, but more space would be nice so we could have a proper outdoor table and chairs/dining area, rather than a small bench table, and just more space around us and everyone.
There are also other things about the house that make me think we will move, it's a noisy busy road only getting noisier. But the main question is do we move to a more like for like house really, so improve on some things and probably lose some current good points - or go for it and upsize, increase mortgage and try to get more of the things we'd like.
It just feels like a huge step, I feel so comfortable with the mortgage we have and scared of a big one with no end in sight.
If we did upsize we'd probably have to increase mortgage term back to 25 yrs!

I just go round in circles, as does DH, neither of us is sure of what to do! I don't feel quite normal, everyone around me seems to have a quite driven, thought out approach and plan to their house buying, plus more bravery to take on big mortgages and see it as investing in the future.. whereas I just dream about less work and pressure, not more!

Thanks @Calmdown14 your place sounds lovely. Yes the footprint is the best it can be, if it were a bigger garden I'd consider a separate garden room pod to give us the additional living space downstairs. Keeping an eye on the housing market and the jump is getting bigger and bigger, I do worry we'll miss the chance as ours is an end terrace so I feel it has more of a limited increase in it's value potential

We had no mortgage but moved and got a mortgage in our early 50s. It's been a good move.

We wanted a garden (previously only a back yard), a drive, semi or detached rather than terrace and within walking distance of work.

It's meant I'm going to have to work full time for about 4 years longer than I thought I would.

Where we are going from a terrace to a semi with a garden and drive was quite a jump. It also need work doing.

The upsides are, far greater space, love the garden, meant is was far easier to get the dog we always wanted. More distance from neighbours (issue with one set of noisy neighbours previously).

The extra space has made a huge difference.

It's worth the mortgage.

And having off street parking is brilliant. My heart used to sink on rainy days with a pile of stuff to get out the car when the only parking was down the far end of the street...

We're on hold, I want to see what pans out with interest rates and inflation before committing more to an already not small mortgage.

We lost our family home to repossession in the early 90s, parents worked in construction/ real estate as do I. I don't want to put my kids through that.

We are tight on space but great location so for me, not worth it at the moment.

I think many of us are in similar positions, even if entirely different circumstances.

just because you extend your mortgage to 25 years, it doesn't mean you can't pay it off sooner!

How easily can you afford the mortgage payments? What have you stress tested it to?

I think I'll end up staying here, but if I had a partner & we were younger (I'm 53) I'd move & take on a mortgage if it gave me a more comfortable house/garden/parking.

It does sound like you may move at some point then.

How easily would you expect yours to sell? Do neighbouring houses fly?

If it's a tricky sell, now is probably not a bad time but if you are confident it's a great starter home and likely to be popular, I'd probably wait a year and save as much as possible in that time

Thanks for all the replies. We are overpaying 3/4 more than our current mortgage to test if it would be comfortable to pay quite a bit more, it seems it would be absolutely fine, but I guess that is with current interest rates and not with other cost of living rises that might make things more difficult.

No one has yet said stay put and crack on with paying off mortgage, and a few are saying the extra mortgage is worth it!
We do have off road parking but there are other negatives about our current house, mainly size of garden and just wanting that bit more space to spread out and relax.
I think ours would sell quite easily, it is more of a first time buyer house and has some nice features and decent sized bedrooms and bathroom. Perhaps staying put until 2023 is wise. Thanks for all the thoughts

It's an intensely personal thing, I think. I work from home in the spare room and would love to have a dedicated work/crafting space.

As DC grows up, it would be nice to have even a conservatory as an extra living space when teenagers are hanging out at our house (I do enjoy having them here but we only have one living space).

Parking is essential for us, one electric vehicle currently and likely to replace the other car with electric at some point.

But to move from our 3 bed semi to a half-decent 4 bed detached in our village, the house prices just about double. We can't afford that, so we stay put.

I have started a similar thread before spotting this! We are in the same position. No real need to move but am worried that our ‘up and coming’ area will be capped whereas more expensive areas just seem to go up and up. We are also wanting to move from vertical house to a more horizontal layout… Would be trading pretty Victorian for quite a dull Edwardian semi but it has a massive garden, in prime road (as are we but not in prime area) but it means getting the most enormous mortgage as it costs 70% more than ours!