Sunny said:
House values should not come into the equation. Negative equity only becomes a problem when looking to sell. And there is no sign of a crash despite the various scare mongering going on! I would have thought the key question in the post is mortgage affordability.
Home values don't come into the equation? Why not? "Affordability" is a buzzword bandied about by the banks to keep this property bubble driving forward.
There's a serious risk of negative equity at the moment - alot of the data points to this so sticking your head in the sand because scare-mongerers have been wrong until now is not the way to deal with it. Nobody has a crystal ball, but you have to take this
risk into account when the potential cost is massive. Buying now at 440 versus buying at 400 in a years time (10% drop) could cost up to 100k in interest/capital over the life of the mortgage. Likewise, it could cost just as much if prices keep going up and you wait - again, that's a risk that needs to be evaluated.
There's also the risk of negative equity coinciding with some other unfortunate event. I know that, if worse comes to the worst, I'd like the option of selling up and removing the costs of servicing a mortgage if I had to, preferably with a few quid left over to help out. So not having any intention of selling up is very different to being forced to sell up.
Having said all that, OP and hubby seem to have their finances in good order (real-life stress testing their finances, as opposed to theoretically on a bank managers computer) so the decision is mostly about managing these risks. For a start, feeling this is their "house for life" helps - they're not jumping on the bottom rung just for the sake of it. The intangible value to their family life is also a factor - being able to decorate the kids rooms, having their own garden to play in, etc.