Community or a cheaper mortgage?
We currently live in a conservatively sized 3 bed end terrace in a small market town in a very nice area. It’s a small home for our family of 4 but we make it work. Our monthly mortgage payments are high but with some good budgeting, we are still able to save, go on holidays etc so it’s working fine. Our town has the loviest community, we know all our neighbours, go to local events, our children are in local schools and we love it here. The house was new when we brought it but we’ve still pretty much done all we can do in terms of adding value/improving it. The last thing on our list is a loft conversion for some much needed extra space, as an extension isn’t possible.
The dilemma is, my dad doesn’t have long left to live and the plan has always been for me to move into my childhood home after he passes away. The house is big, it’s a 5 bed 1930’s semi with a whopping garden. It needs about 100K worth of work, but it has the potential to be amazing. A big con however is that it’s on a main road and although technically set in a village, in a nice area, it’s on the outside. You need a car to access anything from the property as nothing is in walking distance unlike our current home.
It‘s not as simple as me just inheriting it, as one of his friends owns half the house due to my parents divorce so I would need to buy her out, which won’t be a problem.
Running some rough calculations regardless of this, I would still be in a good position due to the equity I could leverage from my current home and have a very small mortgage on my childhood home. It’s always been my dream to restore that house and raise my family there but lately I’m questioning it. How valuable is community really? Is it worth passing the opportunity over to own a bigger property, for much less money just to hold onto the feel of community we have in our town?
What would you do?