How do you know where a nice area to live is?

ukbondraider

Just wondered what resources are out there to allow a person to gain a more informed opinion of a prospective area they might want to buy a house in.

I am aware of sites like upmystreet but these generally give statistical statements which are not very usuable.

Indeed how do you folks decide where to buy?

I am looking to buy another house and will consider every county adjacent to london but I would not know if the place is a good area until after i have resided there for a short while after which it would be too late if it the area was a bad place.

bs0u0128

i would go see any area you are interested in and look at the houses, if they look wellkept, and hardly any are boarded up or look in bad condition, it gives an idea

also look at the people walking past, and what they look like, well dressed etc, not as good an idea but it can give an overall feel for the place

try googling the place or street name as often articles such as crime waves etc will come up

freebo_2

You coul try putting the postcode into https://www.upmystreet.com and check out the "Local Area" and "Neighbourhood profile" for crime stats etc. its not infallible but seems pretty accurate for the postcodes of places I've lived.

HTH

dips_3

Look at the local schools - good results usually equal a good area but be careful because OFSTED reports and 'star's and charts do not always tell the true story.

Look at the nearest shops . If you see shops that require some disposable inocme e.g cafes, good quality clothes and furnitures shops this also indicates a good area. A good sprinkling of charity shops also indicates a good area - it shows good values and that the shops can survive with plenty of reasonble quality donations. Avoid areas that have lots of pound shops and discount shops. Also avoid areas that have suddenly sprung up with lots of street cafes but no substance - these are 'here today gone tomorrow areas' and may change very quickly in an economic downturn.

Check out the local authority website and look at the clubs - are there well established clubs e.g thriving brownies/guides/cubs, sports clubs etc. If you see very little except new clubs focusing on reducing anti social behaviour then avoid the area.

Check out the local library and sports centre - are they well used? This indicates a good stable community.

I'm not suggesting that you would use all these facilities but areas that are stable, with good community values and well established social structures are usually the best areas.

P.S avoid areas were there is very little trasnport and a high reliance on one or a small number of large local employers. Economic downturns tend to devastate areas like this.

fabwitch_2

Brentwood in Essex is a good place to live. 22 minutes fast train from Shenfield Station to Liverpool Street Station. Schools in Brentwood are excellant especially St Martins in Hutton. Low crime rate and seen as a middle class area. We are glad we moved here from London.

lynzpower

read the local papers ( ie east london advertiser, watford gazette etc)

do loads of news googling.

if you are buying somewhere and you broadly like the look of it I would go round late and visit the offlicense/ spar etc and mooch around in the car in the middle of the night to see if theres anything dodgy.

ashm1

ukbondraider wrote:

Just wondered what resources are out there to allow a person to gain a more informed opinion of a prospective area they might want to buy a house in.

I am aware of sites like upmystreet but these generally give statistical statements which are not very usuable.

Indeed how do you folks decide where to buy?

I am looking to buy another house and will consider every county adjacent to london but I would not know if the place is a good area until after i have resided there for a short while after which it would be too late if it the area was a bad place.

Hi,

You should be able to get 2001 data from here http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/get_facts.asp but understand the reporting area may not match your requirements and data limitations. There are household data index products that organisations such as supermarkets and universities purchase but I have forgotten what they are called. Deprivation index might be another useful one (http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1128445#P200_14232).

I suppose you could try buying the local newspapers and see what 'kind' of stories are being reported..crime etc.

Personally if you're not into going through statistics then I would walk around the area on foot. As for schools I'm not sure how I would judge these.



Kind regards,

Ashley.

JennyW_2

bs0u0128 wrote:

also look at the people walking past, and what they look like, well dressed etc, not as good an idea but it can give an overall feel for the place

no, probably not a good idea - I think I'm a decent and honest individual, however when I come home after mucking out my horse, I can look like a tramp :rotfl:

BlondeHeadOn

I used to know an estate agent (!) who advised me to go and look at the cars in the driveways of the street and surrounding streets of any house I wanted to buy. He reckoned that was one of the best ways of telling how upmarket an area is. Nice recent registration cars = nice area, loads of old cars and bangers with wheels off = not so nice area, lots of old-ish but well-preserved cars = not bad but maybe less well-off or lots of older people living there.

Don't know how valid this is, but it is now one thing I always check!

PoorDave

BlondeHeadOn wrote:

I used to know an estate agent (!) who advised me to go and look at the cars in the driveways of the street and surrounding streets of any house I wanted to buy. He reckoned that was one of the best ways of telling how upmarket an area is. Nice recent registration cars = nice area, loads of old cars and bangers with wheels off = not so nice area, lots of old-ish but well-preserved cars = not bad but maybe less well-off or lots of older people living there.

Don't know how valid this is, but it is now one thing I always check!

If you go twice to the area and see the same car with no wheels = bad area.

If all the cars all seem to have all their wheel on both times you're onto a start!

Any of the counties surrounding London will have their good areas and bad areas. Impossible to say on a county by county basis.

Up my street has been faily accurate for me. Just wish i'd known about it before we bought our current house...

imasaver

I think the only way to find out which is a nice area is to live there for a while. I would rent and then have a rapport going with the neighbors and collegues.

When I first moved to middlesbrough from america I thought that Linthorpe was a nice area.. It used to be a nice area in the old days. In fact the best part of middlesbrough at one point. However, it is just not as nice now as it was then. My husband bought a house in a nearby town after moving from cambridge. Compared to the well off area in cambridge he lived.. anything up north with loads of trees looked fantastic. Huge houses with 4 reception rooms and private gated entrances. However, after knowing the area a little better we realize that every city has its own idea of a good area..

One of the best things we have found is to chat with people about schools. The ofsted report sucks.. but we have still found it a good guide when looking at neighborhoods..

after all if ofsted talks badly about a school.. then it is prob. worth not even looking at that kind of area..
Leaving your focus and questions for the other areas which have good schools according to ofsted.

I would also visit the schools too. One can tell by good behavior and accents which area is nice and which is not. I for instance have been put off by some of the low class accents in Good schools according to ofsted.