What age did you buy the 'forever' house?

[Bannock]

Thought we had at 29, then we decided we'd outgrown it at 39 and moved on. Will be downsizing on retirement around 60. That'll be my home until they put me in a care home or cosy wooden box. So it remains to be seen which one I'll be in for the longest, the current one which will be about 20 years when we leave it, or the next one if I live beyond 80 with my health and mind intact still. The only wildcard is how long the missus lives, if she croaks before me and I'm still in good health at that time, I might downsize one more time, to keep things as manageable as possible as I disintegrate.

[Kermit power]

okgo said:

By forever house I mean the most expensive one you'll buy and the one that all being well you'll be in for the bulk of your active life.

I haven't yet, but one thing for certain is that in no world could I ever imagine my forever home being the most expensive one I'll buy.

We currently live next to a London Zone 6 station. Perfect for work, but I loathe built up areas as a general rule!

I'm planning on retiring by the age of 58-60, depending on pension fund performance between now and then, and pretty much the first thing we'll do - if we don't do it as soon as youngest heads off to Uni - is sell our current home, which will doubtless be the most expensive one I'll ever own, take maybe £200-300k out towards funding the retirement, and then buy a much nicer, larger house much further away from any big cities!

If I was just thinking now about buying my first home, what with the ability to work remotely that just wasn't a thing when I started out, I'd probably never come this close to a large town in the first place, but such is life!

[Mark83]

Moved here in 2017 when we were 33. 39 now, still love the house; its size, location, local amenities and with a baby due any day, in the catchment for OFSTED outstanding nurseries and schools and we recently extended to fit our new life.

It would take a significant change in our circumstances to move.

[un1eash]

Didn't buy our first house until 27 years old and wasn't expecting to stay 11 years but both our boys were born in that house as it had plenty of space for a growing family. Moved last year at 38 into what could be a forever home but most likely won't be our last home as I'd like to move somewhere more rural once the boys have started college/university. For now it's perfect in that it meets all our current needs and hopefully paid off well before I'm 50.

[lizardbrain]

We are at different stages in our career and there isn’t enough overlap in our ‘forever homes’ right now, so we compromise and live somewhere neither of us are too enamoured with


one of us will break at some point

[CharlieGee]

36 for me. Left London to do it a couple of years ago. From what you say, it doesn’t seem that there’s anything keeping you in the city so why wait ten years? Only argument I can see is further appreciation of your current place making the move easier - I did think about this before leaving London but decided another 5+ years to (maybe) realise something significant wasn’t worth it.

[MrDan]

Intresting thread to read.

I thought id bought mine at 31 and im now 38. We started our family here who are 2 and 5 years. I have spent allot of money on it and continue to try to make it the perfect family home but I think deep down we will move it again.

Its the area where I grew and is getting more and more developed and I just want more peace as I get older, but the kids may change that idea.

Makes me question every time I do another "Job" why do i keep spending!

[CopperBolt]

60 this year and thinking of moving again to try and get away, again, from noise. Unfortunately after 4 failed attempts to do so over about 30 years Im thinking the odds are against me.

How do you know before you move somewhere that:
There isnt a yappy dog that barks all day/night next door/nearby
The neighbours love to share their music with the nearest 6 houses either side of them.
There isnt a child that screams all day when it's outside.
There isnt someone who fires up a motorbike on the drive between houses and just blips the throttle on it.
The house isnt on a local moped grand prix 1am circuit? (live down a cul-de-sac for that one maybe?)

[okgo]

CharlieGee said:

36 for me. Left London to do it a couple of years ago. From what you say, it doesn’t seem that there’s anything keeping you in the city so why wait ten years? Only argument I can see is further appreciation of your current place making the move easier - I did think about this before leaving London but decided another 5+ years to (maybe) realise something significant wasn’t worth it.

Fair points. I think it is a combo of being a bit young in my head to go and live in a village - this is where I'd wanna end up I 'think' so not sure I want to buy two houses by going to a suburb/half way house due to stamp. And then still having a lot of mates in and around London area, still enjoying going out around here, and finally 10 years time made some sense re school as my son would be 13 then so in market for a senior school. You are right in some respects that part of the decision is driven around potentially making some money on the place, but also getting some value from the stamp we paid only 3 years ago too.

I also have a bit of a fear about jumping too early and regretting it. Buying houses in London is quite forgiving in that sense because you know roughly speaking what you're in for and even if you don't end up loving the area you're in you're moments from another, or another, or another, and the simple fact is that no place in London is perfect, you can rationalise any number of things because 'that's just a big city'. That isn't the case with smaller towns or villages, this is why it feels more important to get it right.

[p1doc]

33 moved with oldest who was 6 into forever house with 4 acres mostly forest-really helped during lockdown for kids to be able to get out and about-now cutting up fallen trees from various storms arwen collie and otto for woodburning stove,now had chickens for a couple of years as well-no regrets

[princeperch]

At the age of 37, a year ago. I have spent 970k in respect of buying, the fees, the stamp duty, and the renovation costs and it's currently worth about 1.1m.

There is absolutely no way I can envisage a situation where I will be moving from here unless I am forced to by Ill health or a divorce or some other unexpected life event.

I am surrounded by parkland on every side. I have a pub that isn't so close that I'll be in it every night but close enough that I can walk to it in 15 minutes across some nice flats.

I have a tube station either a 20 min walk away or 8 mins on a bus which stops at the end of my road. Ofsted outstanding schools nearby which my kids attend. I can be In the city In about 30 mins door to door and can cycle to my office, which I do once a week, in about 50 minutes.

I have an 80ft garden out the back and a small driveway at the front.

Probably most importantly I have nice neighbours who give a st about the road and their house etc.

My parents think I am utterly mental spending this money on a 1800 sq ft Edwardian terraced house when I could have gotten something detached and larger out in the sticks.

I think that if you have the chance to live as close to central London as I do and have a nice house where you can actually do enjoyable stuff when you retire, that is the sane choice to make.

[anonymous-user]

CopperBolt said:

60 this year and thinking of moving again to try and get away, again, from noise. Unfortunately after 4 failed attempts to do so over about 30 years Im thinking the odds are against me.

How do you know before you move somewhere that:
There isnt a yappy dog that barks all day/night next door/nearby
The neighbours love to share their music with the nearest 6 houses either side of them.
There isnt a child that screams all day when it's outside.
There isnt someone who fires up a motorbike on the drive between houses and just blips the throttle on it.
The house isnt on a local moped grand prix 1am circuit? (live down a cul-de-sac for that one maybe?)

The only way is to act like a detective and do a stake out. Talk to neighbours can be good (unless they are the noisy ones) but I think going back to the place at different times of day and different days of the week is the only way to have some idea. Then again, a neighbour could get a dog once you’ve moved or a new neighbour moves in.

The only way to really guarantee the peace you want is to live remotely, far from other people. I did that once but prefer neighbours tbh.

[B'stard Child]

House	Age @ Purchase	Yrs in it
First	21	3
Second	24	2
Third	27	32

No plans to move until we retire to London or need assisted living

[LimaDelta]

PianoManYork said:

The only way to really guarantee the peace you want is to live remotely, far from other people.

This. Best piece of house buying advice I was given was 'never buy a house for the view, unless you own the view'. Not taken too literally, but it does mean a lot can change after you move in. The only way to be sure it doesn't is to own the view, either literally, metaphorically, or both.

[Percy.]

Me and my partner bought our first house 2.5 years ago when we wete in our mid twenties.

We always said we would stay 3-5 years and have started proactively looking for the next house, it will be a considerable step-up in terms of size and price, moving from a small city terrace with a very small rear courtyard to a much bigger house with a garden and driveway etc.

I want the next house to be a "forever home", but realistically we can't afford that just yet. We want to move as we've outgrown this house and got the city living that we wanted from it, now I'm just sick of not being able to park my car off the road.

[alscar]

It sounds like London suits you so like Princeperch’s post perhaps that is the sane choice - for you.
Before children and marriage I lived in North London and then post marriage decided to live out in Buckinghamshire. Poor idea for commuting to the City but good for road links and Airports which as a frequent traveller was fine. Moved another 2 times before deciding on that so called forever house - 18 years ago.
House is big , listed , has land and stables , lots of garages and a tennis court so our 3 kids grew up here from the age of 10 downwards.
Couldn’t afford it at the time so used an IO mortgage.
Kids all went to excellent State schools including a primary school in the village.
My Point ? It suited us but wouldn’t be for everyone. I still think I have another big move in me though.

[mcelliott]

Well I was 31 and my wife was 24, a beautiful house 100m from the beach plus swimming pool, absolute stunning views, fell in love with it the moment we saw it, life was perfect for about 12yrs until a near by house became rental, noise in the way of st music st sounding motorbikes that sort of thing, things have actually improved over the last year or so but it have defo not become our forever home which really does pain me, fast forward to today and we have submitted plans for hopefully our true forever home.

[p1doc]

princeperch said:

At the age of 37, a year ago. I have spent 970k in respect of buying, the fees, the stamp duty, and the renovation costs and it's currently worth about 1.1m.

There is absolutely no way I can envisage a situation where I will be moving from here unless I am forced to by Ill health or a divorce or some other unexpected life event.

I am surrounded by parkland on every side. I have a pub that isn't so close that I'll be in it every night but close enough that I can walk to it in 15 minutes across some nice flats.

I have a tube station either a 20 min walk away or 8 mins on a bus which stops at the end of my road. Ofsted outstanding schools nearby which my kids attend. I can be In the city In about 30 mins door to door and can cycle to my office, which I do once a week, in about 50 minutes.

I have an 80ft garden out the back and a small driveway at the front.

Probably most importantly I have nice neighbours who give a st about the road and their house etc.

My parents think I am utterly mental spending this money on a 1800 sq ft Edwardian terraced house when I could have gotten something detached and larger out in the sticks.

I think that if you have the chance to live as close to central London as I do and have a nice house where you can actually do enjoyable stuff when you retire, that is the sane choice to make.

i think it depends if you like rural vs city living as long as it is your forever house and you are happy that is what matters

[CharlieGee]

okgo said:

Fair points. I think it is a combo of being a bit young in my head to go and live in a village - this is where I'd wanna end up I 'think' so not sure I want to buy two houses by going to a suburb/half way house due to stamp. And then still having a lot of mates in and around London area, still enjoying going out around here, and finally 10 years time made some sense re school as my son would be 13 then so in market for a senior school. You are right in some respects that part of the decision is driven around potentially making some money on the place, but also getting some value from the stamp we paid only 3 years ago too.

I also have a bit of a fear about jumping too early and regretting it. Buying houses in London is quite forgiving in that sense because you know roughly speaking what you're in for and even if you don't end up loving the area you're in you're moments from another, or another, or another, and the simple fact is that no place in London is perfect, you can rationalise any number of things because 'that's just a big city'. That isn't the case with smaller towns or villages, this is why it feels more important to get it right.

Your situation is a bit different to mine in that case. I’d had my London fun and knew I wouldn’t miss it, wouldn’t have left if I was still spending significant time with friends locally.

The only thing I’d add is that I have a two year old and definitely feel the benefit of a larger house and larger garden. Oh, and your kid will be absolutely furious at being dragged from his mates at 13!

[Slow.Patrol]

We thought we had at 37 and 35.

Got into our 60s and realised where we had been living for the last 25 years was no longer somewhere we wanted to spend our retirement, mostly due to overdevelopment and lack of corresponding improvements to infrastructure. We got fed up of traffic jams.

We moved 150 miles away and loving it. The house was cheaper, despite being bigger, and it also meant we could retire a bit earlier than planned. Oddly enough, I am now 20 miles from where I was born.