A to A+ seems like a pretty modest change considering the undertaking. That said that could be a more significant difference then the rating eludes to, I’m not too familiar with that rating system.

Are you tied to the current general area due to commute, family, just pure preference?

The plan to overhaul your house sounds pretty good in practice but there are so many factors that would go into pulling off a maneuver of that scale, combined with the current economic uncertainty and it just doesn’t feel like it’s worth floating that amount of risk for what honestly has such an uncertain degree of payoff, and if the wrong event(s) take place, could leave you just breaking even or in a financial hole with huge mess to sort out.

I ask my initial question about what ties you to that area, because you might be able to get something that checks all your boxes, is in your budget, located in beautiful town and with a A+ school system if your able to distance yourself a bit more from the city, just say 30-35min opens up a lot of options.