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

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  • clairehi
    clairehi Posts: 1,352 Forumite
    how do you folks decide where to buy?

    .

    We relocated to a new area 200 miles from where we were living, where we knew no-one. From being offered the new job to moving in to a (rented) house in our new town took us 2 months This is how we did it.

    First criterion - transport to work. This is more complex if there's 2 of you. we looked at an area within 1 hours driving distance of my work, but also needed to be near a mainline station for DH.

    Second - schools. we focussed on areas with good primary and secondary schools. the choice of good secondary schools really narrowed it down a lot.

    We now had 4 towns that matched our needs.

    After this, we picked out individual houses in our price range in different areas and just drove around looking at the outsides. It doesnt take long to get an idea of an area by the level of upkeep of the houses, the people walking around and the type of shops. We also ruled one area out as being too expensive.

    Having lived here a year now, I am fairly certain we made the right decision. Its not perfect, but we didnt have time to wait for perfect!
  • If you can do so, try and drop by where you're thinking of on a regular basis at all times of day and night - it's amazing how many "nice" areas by day have evening problems....
    There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don't

    In many cases it helps if you say where you are - someone with local knowledge might be able to give local specifics rather than general advice
  • Sorry if this has already been suggested (Couldn't be bothered reading all the other posts) - but I'd suggest driving through the area at night. You'll be able to see if gangs of youths are hanging around. Obviously youths need to hang around somewhere but like everyone I am sure you don't want it to be your doorstep. Also check out the nearest shop and takeways such as chip shops since these are places you are likely to go to at night and you don't want to feel you can't go their if it's full of troublesome youths standing around it.

    Hope this helps
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