Hi everyone,

Im living in Greater Toronto Area living in small home with very less mortgage outstanding.

should I move to a bigger home with a higher mortgage? or spend the 2-4 years to finish out my current mortgage?

any input will be appreciated

Thank you

I don't really see the purpose in waiting....either you continue to pay down your current mortgage or you start working at paying down the new mortgage (to me I see no difference). Your only issue would be a possible penalty on breaking the current mortgage but if you are staying with the same lender they may waive any penalty in order to keep your business on the new mortgage and besides, your penalty at this point should be quite small anyways. With interest rates the way they are right now, I think you may be better off getting into the larger mortgage now as opposed to waiting a few years (who knows what rates will be like then).

Azwraith,

It really depends on what you want in the long term. With mortgage rates as low as they are you can probably buy a lot of house with the equity you have and a reasonable payment. But you do need to keep in mind that a larger home will cost more in other areas, utilities, taxes and maintenance will all be higher.

How long to you plan on staying in the home? the market may take a while to settle down, if you plan on selling in a few years I would probably stay put.

Do you see your housing needs changing in the near future? Do you think you will need more space for a growing family? How long do you expect to be working?

Personally I am not a fan of having any debt, but managing a reasonable amount of debt can be a good financial technique. If you didn't have a mortgage payment would you be putting the money into a savings plan? If so with the current market conditions and the uncertainty of the financial markets a conservative savings plan will PROBABLY out perform a Mortgage for building savings in the short term. The other side of this is that when rates increase that next home will cost you more on a monthly basis, and that could balance out any gains you would have made.

My personal goals are to keep my monthly living expenses as cheap as possible and to only keep about 15 - 20% of my portfolio in non-income producing real estate (ie. my home)But I work on commission and have no income guarantees, your situation is probably different and therefore you need a different plan.