First Time Buyer - advice on location (london-cambridge)

xuanxuan

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Problem with upmystreet is that many of the descriptions are not of that specific neighbourhood at all. Which part of the description put you off?

Normally I will look at the family income, education level, couple of children,and school nearby.
The family income near Mill Rd is medium, and couple of children - low, also the primary school nearby dont achieve nation average.

ldavies_3

I cant help with your dilema though my nan lives in Ely and we live in North Wales.. I spend a great amount of time there and would ddeffo love to live in Ely if my husband would re locate..

xuanxuan

PasturesNew wrote: »

If the job is in Sawston, I'd look for a village with a train station in that part of Cambridgeshire.

Shelford was always posh in my day - and it has a station.

Basically all the villages from there on the train route are nice areas. Nice villages.

We looked at Shelford already, reasons to put me off is the commute to London, it migh take me 2 hrs to get to the office.

xuanxuan

dander wrote: »

I would think very carefully about that commute. Even if the train itself is quite fast into London, you've still got to get from home to the station and across London from either Kings Cross or Liverpool St to Paddington. Plus on the way home there's the waiting time for a train - you'll will always just miss one - or if this is Kings Cross - Cambridge line, you might be there in time, but not be able to squeeze on the one that's about to leave.

If you've got a 1 year old baby you are really going to feel every wasted minute you spend travelling! Personally, in your situation, I wouldn't go any further up towards Cambridge than Hitchin because that's where the rail line splits and so anything from Hitchin down towards London you get the benefit of the high speed trains as well as the local ones. Stevenage would be far and away your best bet for speed and frequency of trains, but there's very little housing close in to the station and it's not a hugely appealing place. There are nice places round and about Stevenage - I think some of the housing is actually quite pleasant, and there are some lovely big green spaces and there are also villages and old Stevenage, but there are also certainly some very dodgy bits! And you would almost certainly end up having to bus or drive into the station, which would lessen the advantages of the good train service.

Dander, your advice is really healpful, travelling time is exactly what I concerned most.I notice the train line split from Hitchin after I finish some homework. According to the figures from upmystreet, Hitchin is difinitely a much better town than Stevenage (I mean area around station) and good train service as well. But my hubby point outa problem. How's the traffic from Hitchn to A1? Would that be terrible to drive across these small towns during the peak hrs?
It was quoted 28.5 miles,48 mins from Hitchin to Sawston in Google map? I guess the time lenth might need to increase at least 50% to 75mins during peak time?

gingin_2

xuanxuan wrote: »

Normally I will look at the family income, education level, couple of children,and school nearby.
The family income near Mill Rd is medium, and couple of children - low, also the primary school nearby dont achieve nation average.

Mill road is a long road. The top part of the road, I would say St Barnabas road and upwards has 4 fantastic junior schools. St Matthews, Parkside, St Paul's and St Albans. But off Mill Road, at a guess, I would say there are 6-8 catchment primaries. I live and educate my children here and all the schools I mentioned achieve good results as well as having a really good ethos and atmosphere. The senior school is Parkside, which is a great school. I think you could get a modest sized terrace in these catchments for £220k ish. The problem if you live in the villages is that the trains suddenly become very slow, but I too like the Shelfords, Foxton, Shepreth. There are also some very good day nurseries for children in and around Cambridge if you need them.

gingin_2

xuanxuan wrote: »

Dander, your advice is really healpful, travelling time is exactly what I concerned most.I notice the train line split from Hitchin after I finish some homework. According to the figures from upmystreet, Hitchin is difinitely a much better town than Stevenage (I mean area around station) and good train service as well. But my hubby point outa problem. How's the traffic from Hitchn to A1? Would that be terrible to drive across these small towns during the peak hrs?
It was quoted 28.5 miles,48 mins from Hitchin to Sawston in Google map? I guess the time lenth might need to increase at least 50% to 75mins during peak time?

I think maybe 5 years ago they put a bypass in Baldock, between Hitchin and Cambridge, and this has cut the commute time down drastically. It depends where you live in Hitchin, but even in the centre, you are pretty close to the A1, I don't think it would be a problem. I think when you are out of Hitchin it would be mostly A road driving, so I can't see that the commute would be too tedious. Hitchin is a nice place. Hitchin Boys and Girls schools are very good indeed.

Debt_Free_Chick

xuanxuan wrote: »

Normally I will look at the family income

this page?

If so, note that this is NOT the income for that postcode. See the disclaimer
"This is a description of the type of neighbourhood to which this postcode has been matched, it is not a description of the postcode."

The family income near Mill Rd is medium, and couple of children - low, also the primary school nearby dont achieve nation average.

The school information is local, but not very current. You'd be better having a look at the reports on the Ofsted site.

Note that the crime statistics are for the whole area served by Cambridge Council - not just Mill Road.

I can't comment on this area, but just to say that Upmystreet is not as local as we might think. It's just statistics gathered from other sources.

hethmar

There are always hold ups on the Cambridge London line anyway - I dont think I could face it day in day out Son lives even further up and has been spending up to 6 hours a day commuting to west london and back on some days - hell for him - thats why he is currently looking for a flat in London near a tube station.

becky_rtw

Hethmar - I wouldnt say every day - I did three months of commuting in the summer and was delayed twice - thats pretty good I would say!

Overcrowded and overpriced - yes, unreliable - no.

hethmar

Hi, no I didnt say every day becks - just some days. I also guess it depends when you are using the train - he works very strange shifts (tv) and may be thats the time when they would squeeze in minor works that holds up the system.