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

never_enough

I have several friends that have bought in Stevenage in the last year, all new builds, ok sizewise & decent family layouts. None are near the station though. There was lots of building going on until recently. I get the impression that there are a lot of of council, or ex council properties around the station, but I could be wrong.
In Royston there is a fairly new estate right next to the station, look up Charding Crescent, or Barnack Grove. I visit there often & there are always places on the market/. Or, for a bigger budget some stonking period properties on the main road.
Cambridge is all expensive, especially around the station. I wouldn't want to live on Mill Road myself, but know people that have who loved it. Ely used to be **very** much cheaper than Cambridge, but not quite so much so nowadays, it might still be worth a look, although it's north of Cambridge so will add more time & cost to your journey.
I've heard that Haverhill is very cheap, but don't know about transport options.

eltawater

Come and live in Bishops Stortford, but I recommend you rent first to see how you get on with the commute into London.

Stortford has the 40 minute Stansted Express into Liverpool Street, and your partner can drive to Sawston in about 30 minutes along the M11. The train line branches at Stortford, you have the fast Stansted Express - > Storford - > Liverpool Street Line, and the Slow Cambridge -> Stortford -> Liverpool Street Line. It's a good 1 hour 20 odd from cambridge to liverpool street this way at least.

The train journey is guaranteed to drive you mad after a while, but unfortunately due to your two relative work locations, there's not much you will be able to do about it in terms of areas to live.

We moved to stortford a few years back, and continued to commute into London. It used to take me the best part of 1 hour 40 minutes in the evening to get home, with a commute of South Quay Docklands Light railway -> Bank underground -> walk to liverpool street -> 10 minute wait for train -> Liverpool street to stortford.
This is going to be the same for you whether you move to the stortford side or the hitchin side, as you have to factor in all the tube changes and all the waiting around.

Royston, Ely and Cambridge is going to be too far for you, you'll have better options with places further south.

The only thing I can recommend is that one of you changes to a job location better suited to you. We both now no longer work in London and feel so much better for it. Trust me, the extra hours a day you will get back and no longer having to pay 3000 pounds a year in train fares make all the difference

Haverhill has no train station so that stuffs your options for getting into paddington.

Stevenage is a hole, don't even go there. It's bad enough I have to drive there everyday from Stortford for work

The A1M is constantly busy during rush hour, and there are always jams reported between the hitchin to stevenage junctions so it might be better for your other half to avoid it.

My drive everyday is more or less comparable to what your other half is looking to do from hitchin to sawston. It takes me a good 40 minutes each way to do 25 miles on a good day, 1 hour 5 minutes on a bad day, with a mixture of cross country roads and stevenage town centre.

A good 20 minutes of each journey is lost just getting through Stevenage town centre, so you'll probably have the same problems getting through Hitchin/Letchworth/Baldock.

I'll say it again, go and rent FIRST to see how you get on with your relative commutes. House prices are coming down in the area at the moment, and you do not want to be stuck with a house in a place which makes your journey to work hell, but which you can't leave due to negative equity.

Hope that helps

RobertoMoir

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

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."

Yeah you have to be very careful of that kind of site. For my postcode it says
"With money tight, food shopping might be in Aldi or Kwik Save. Clothes might be bought at Asda"

That would be the "Kwik Save" and "Asda" that we don't have anywhere in the town at all would it? I agree with Debt_Free_Chick, don't take that site as gospel by any means.

xuanxuan

Taking all your advices, we start to look at some properties in Hitchin in last two weeks. The very last one we looked at is a new build which make us suddently feel the properties we looked at before are all crappy! We like new build!

The new build is a 4bds terrence, (a bit bigger than what we expect to buy,) really nice.

positive points:
Good location(0.2 mile to the station)
Within the good area (all private buildings in that postcode)
In the catchment of a nice secondery school, and lots of good primary school around

All seems positive to me.

The original published price in March 08 is 380k, in Aug 08 reduced to 335k. But the sales told me I can probably get it at 270k with all flooring, curtain incl.

I am thinking to make an offer at 250k. But there are still some uncertainty of us(negative points)

My hubby will only start his job in January next year in Cambridge. Not sure the commute time to his work yet.

Property price are going down obviously, esp new build. But I think if we can get it at 250k, the price has gone down for 35% from it's original, would that be big enough?

We didnt look at that much/enough property so far. Probably can find sth better?


We really like new build, I cannot see there are any new build house near the station is developing. What should I do now? Should I go ahead?

All advices are welcome.

mlz1413

Can you rent in that area for 6 months to a year? This would give the market a chance to settle and give you a chance to try the area and commute before you buy.

I can't see prices on houses going up again so you shouldn't lose anything, you might even gain.

hethmar

Have you gone to AA route map and got a timing for the journey door to door for your husband? That would at least give you an idea of the time involved for his commute?

£130k is a big drop isnt it!

Could you stay for a few nights in a hotel or b and b in the area and husband do a trial run during morning rush hour to the job? And you can have a good look round during the day and meet local people?

GDB2222

xuanxuan wrote: »

We really like new build, I cannot see there are any new build house near the station is developing. What should I do now? Should I go ahead?

All advices are welcome.

Best bet is that prices have another 20-30% to fall, that's on top of whatever falls have already happened. Whilst you may like new-build, these houses always have a price premium which you lose in the first few years of ownership. I wouldn't get stampeded into buying this place, but ymmv.

In any case, if the salesman is talking £270k, he must mean £250k because of the Stamp Duty threshold.

xuanxuan

mlz1413 wrote: »

Can you rent in that area for 6 months to a year? This would give the market a chance to settle and give you a chance to try the area and commute before you buy.

I can't see prices on houses going up again so you shouldn't lose anything, you might even gain.

That was our original plan. but now just cannot find an excuse strong enough to put myself off from it. I really dont want to miss it.

xuanxuan

hethmar wrote: »

Have you gone to AA route map and got a timing for the journey door to door for your husband? That would at least give you an idea of the time involved for his commute?

£130k is a big drop isnt it!

Could you stay for a few nights in a hotel or b and b in the area and husband do a trial run during morning rush hour to the job? And you can have a good look round during the day and meet local people?

The AA estimate around 40 mins from Hitchin to sawston. but i guess might much longer during rush hours.

That is a good idea to stay in the b& b for a few days. probably i should wait till Jan when my hubby start his work and try first. Hopefully, by then the house is still there.

eltawater

The AA estimate 36 minutes for my commute from Stortford to Stevenage.

The reality on a good day is 45 minutes
If it rains, it can be anything up to 1 hour 10.

Wait for January, don't buy now. If it's gone, it's gone, but there are plenty of other houses in the area.