To downsize for a better school

[Glasgowgirl4]

We live in a nice enough area, but our local high school is quite far down the league tables. We could move into a neighbouring area with really fantastic schools but we would have to downsize from a detached to a smaller semi. My dd is in p6 in primary so have a bit of time to make the decision.
Just wondering what fellow parents would do?
Thanks in advance.

[ChristopherTracy]

The thing I have found about moving for schools is that a lot of your friends can be really funny/arsey about it and then when it gets to crunch time you find that in fact they ARE moving or are going private or whatever and they just havent been talking about it.

[Bin85]

Yes move for the school.It makes a huge difference.Any chance you can find a detached doer upper?

[bob1985]

OP ...are you in east lothian?

if you are and the catchment you are thinking of is North Berwick. I would look to move

[GintyMarlow2]

We moved house to try for an excellent state school. Unfortunately DD didn't get a place, despite passing the exam. Apparently we should have built a house in the playground to stand a chance. We finished up paying school fees.
I would definitely move.

[Glasgowgirl4]

No we are in the West of Scotland. Even the run down detached are very pricey in this area! DH is almost 50 and is not keen to take out a much larger mortgage.

[JoJoSM2]

DH is almost 50 and is not keen to take out a much larger mortgage.

Would you actually be able to afford a detached house but just prefer not to have a higher mortgage?

Would you want to stay in the new area for retirement? If you want to downsize/move in the future, it might be ok to just temporarily have a higher mortgage and a notional term of 15-20 years. You’d then downsize anyway, using your equity to pay for the next house and be mortgage free.