Take on a bigger mortgage aged 50 to move areas?

[Berlin2018]

We are in the fortunate position to be able to pay our mortgage off in the next year and a bit. We moved to the area when the children were small to be close to family who are sadly no longer with us.

I really hate the area and have done for some time, my friends are all a 30-60 minute drive away, there’s a huge amount of construction work going on and it has just never felt like the right fit for me, e.g not very diverse/very different voting outcomes etc We always drive to somewhere else to go out for dinner/go got a walk etc

However the house is big enough for the older teen DC who will probably be with us for the next 10 years or so and the house itself is nice. To move somewhere I’d rather be is likely to be less convenient for college/uni for the kids for the next 2-3 years and will involve taking on a mortgage of £200k to £250k more to get a house big enough in the areas we are looking at.

Stay put seems like the sensible option, more disposable cash, better for the DC etc. Anyone been in a similar position? Am wondering whether I should wait until kids are older and DH and I can downsize to a different area.

Just another thing to consider. Have you compared the area you are in now versus where you would move to in terms of typical / average house price increases? Ie consider whether buying a house in new better area would actually be a better investment than staying where you are so when / if you do come to sell or downsize you will have increased the capital to loan value to your advantage.

if you take on £250 k I’d be hoping I’d get a good return on that.

I would do it once your youngest has finished GCSEs. But I took on a £650k mortgage aged 45, so £200k aged 50 seems perfectly fine to me!

Depends a lot on your income/affordability. I’d be aiming to have it paid off by age 60 if I were you.

How much would the monthly repayments be percentage wise, against your earnings? Personally I always think location is the most important, and I’d take on more borrowing (within reason) to get a good location that I loved. Also a detached house.

It sounds like you need to stay put till the DC are adults - older teen so it’s not that far away and then buy a buy smaller to keep your costs down

Stay put.
Save money.
Suck it up for a few more years.
Move to a smaller house in your chosen area once your DCs are no longer dependent on you.

Your future wallet will thank you for it 😄

X posted with @childofthe607080s