Things are brewing, they are.
Katy and I are hemming and hawing about possibly buying a house. We found something really, really nice in Great Chesterford. There's tons of reasons why it's tempting. It's a well-proportioned 3 bedroom semi-detached that's less than 15 years old. It's pretty much ready to move into. The area is nice. It's on the shuttle bus route to work, it's close to a train station so we can jaunt to London (not that we'll be able to afford going anymore, but that's another matter entirely).
The downside is, of course, money. It's a big chunk o' cash. It's on offer for £235,000. That would mean a montly mortgage of £1500. For you canadians out there, that figures to about 3400$CAD… That's a looooot of money. Even when you're being paid in pounds. A third of our gross salary will go straight to the bank, and that's hoping interest rates stay as they are (or hopefully go lower).
We've been crunching the numbers for the past week. We can get the mortgage in principle. My contract is safe for the next two years, in principle. Our budget would be tight, but doable, in principle. We'd have to reign in some of our more colourful spending, but we probably need to do that anyway.
It would mean we'd be on the property ladder in the UK, which is probably not a bad thing considering that house prices have doubled in the last 10 years (and even more, really). The people who bought that exact house paid £140,000 in 2002. The one thing that scares me is that the market is ripe for a correction, which means that prices will drop. Having said that, they've been saying that for the last few years. It will happen. The question is when.
Moving house seems to be the national sport here these days. When we move, I'd like to think we'll stay there until we need to move elsewhere in the UK or Canada for work reasons… Anyway. As a workmate just said, it'll probably be the biggest financial investment we ever make.
So yeah. Watch this space. We're going for a second visit this weekend. Who knows what'll happen by monday…