Debating a Home Move

[chasesfish]

Just a quick update - no move yet, I'm still struggling with deciding between doubling my house value (and going from a 120k mtg to 380k) for a single family or getting a nice, new townhouse without the pain of exterior maintenance. The idea may sit on the sideline for a few months because my commute is worlds better for the next 2.5 months. No school zones!

[meekie]

I missed this thread the first time, but I had a similar situation last year and we decided to move.

At 37/41 DH realized that there was no reason for us to keep living in the suburbs in a good school district when we're not going to have kids. We were spending 3-4 evenings a week travelling to another neighborhood where all our favorite bars, restaurants and friends were.

We started looking for a house, and after 2 offers that we're glad they didn't work out, we found our dream house. We doubled our mortgage debt, refinanced our old house to get a bigger down payment and moved. We're renting our old house out, since property taxes are tied to when you bought your house in CA, the property taxes are so cheap it's worth it to keep it. It was a hard choice, because we went from 10-15 years from paying off our house to having 2 30 year mortgages, but someday the rental income should cover property taxes for both houses.

We've been extremely happy with our move. Our quality of life has increased, our circle of friends has expanded, and we walk to bars and dinner all the time. We didn't even move our cars this weekend.

Our commute is actually slightly worse than before, but now we don't have to commute for fun. We have a house that fits our needs better (great room instead of small separate living and family rooms), is actually bigger, but has a much more reasonable yard for what we need.

I'd think about your quality of life. Do you want to live in a city? Are you ok with closer neighbors and possibly higher street traffic? Does your wife want to change jobs, or would you just be trading your commute for hers?

My biggest problem now is that I like my house so much I don't want to go to the office anymore.

[chasesfish]

Thank you for the reply - I'm finding out this is just going to be a long process, I want to move and it opens up my wife's employment options if she were to change jobs, it's going to take time to find an affordable single family with a couple of the non negotiables we want in a house. Double the mortgage debt also still scares me, probably because I've been hanging out on this site and really want FI as soon as possible

[chasesfish]

Just a quick update - I'm still looking for the right place. The search is getting a little more promising, the uptick in mortgage rates has finally slowed turnover and there's actually some inventory. The downside is I'm probably doing a 10yr arm instead of of a 30 year fixed.

[Sesq]

Don't think of it as 10 hours a week. Think of it as 480-500 hours a year, or about 20 full days in traffic.

Move.

[chasesfish]

I am extending an offer, more money than I ever thought I would pay for a house. I'm really hopeful on regaining those 12-15 days of my life. I also think I have a lot of value upside