Schools and house moving dilemma - what's the solution

Bufger

Fly_Baby wrote: »

Three-bed semi-detached or terraced house in the area with decent schools seem to be out of reach already - unless I agree to tiny bedrooms and a tiny garden. And we are talking ex-council houses here (not that it bothers me but it does gives an indication of the level of prices in our town - not London and not even Greater London).

In that case why stay in that area at all? have you looked at neighbouring towns/cities? is your/your partners job in the city you live in? if so are the jobs easily transferable or is a commute into that city possible/cheap enough/easy and quick?

I live in a 3 bed old terrace in a good area in my city which has a train route to london that takes 40 minutes, its near some of the best primary and secondary schools in the city and it cost us £140k when we bought it last year. As its an old house it has big living spaces and some nice features (plus massive garden and massive kitchen). You could buy over 50% of it with your deposit and have a really low rate + pay the yearly commute fee and still be better off.

Its worth thinking outside the box slightly

BethanyD

We have spent 8 years investigating this issue (with 3 kids of school age).

Probably the most interesting point that we discovered was that the area with the best house price to school quality ratio was the North-West of England.

On the Wirral, for example, the schools at both primary and secondary level are excellent (they even have Grammars and the 11 plus) and a semi can cost as little as £130,000.

We did think of relocating but work was a problem.