Moving to a cheap area to save cash

Badger_Lady

If your wife's very settled in her current community, then I'd pause before uprooting...

In my case, I had a lot of friends at 'home' but no family to worry about. I've stayed in touch with those friends (although of course I see them less often), and have now established myself in the new community - I chose a cul-de-sac full of neighbours who are very socially involved with each other, in an area that has an active society doing things like tree planting, cultural celebrations and community choir.

It's not an area in which you could buy outright for £20k. You could get a nice starter home near the City centre for £70k.

BigAunty

I'm with LandyAndy on this one - properties that are ultra cheap are inevitably situated in economically depressed areas, with all the usual much higher than average nuisances, like crime, lack of jobs, etc. Absolutely no point in being mortgage free in a litter strewn slum with little prospect of decent work.

I bailed out from down south to Glasgow and have really enjoyed a greater standard of living at much lower cost. Bought a 2 bed flat in a lovely pocket of town a couple of miles from the city centre for £125k and where there are plenty of 1 beds for your budge where you can pay down the 80k balance quite quickly with a bit of drive and thrift.

At least the city has fab amenities - great shopping, good transport, surrounded by country side, good employment prospects.

However, a newcomer without good local knowledge and dazzled by cheap prices could easily end up in a slum area with high crime, there are huge pockets of incredibly run down areas.

My brother thinks he's king of the castle in a depressed mining town in yorkshire. it's a close community and at least he's got a job, but the high street is just a few charity shops with many boarded up empty places, transport is terrible, work opportunities really low. it makes my heart sink when I visit him.

Iwanttobeatree

@Pursey

i cant post links but

rightmove co uk / property-for-sale/property-32252110.html

^ i cant believe that house btw, 25k whats the deal with that ? the street looks alright to me, not too bad is it? i acutally like that house.

findaproperty com/displayprop.aspx?edid=00&salerent=0&pid=10586167

15k for this, i'd have money left over, unreal.

__________________

but yeah maybe at some point i'll want more for a 100k and look up north, but im thinking more creating a finacial base/cheap living for next few years and trying to keep some kind of happiness

SailorSam

Iwanttobeatree wrote: »

tiny welsh village deep in wales is off my list i think.

Going back a few years you use to read stories about some the really Welsh parts of Wales were they didn't like the English in their community and new comers had the homes set on fire.
Don't know if that still happens.

iB1

Iwanttobeatree wrote: »

well maybe only 1 family member is a factor for me personally, but i would move away from them if i had to.

for my mrs she hates the idea of leaving the south west, she likes friends, work, and everything appart from the property situation.

hmmm sucks i already wasted like 35k maybe 40k on renting in my life and probably going to be wasting more

Whoa - I think this is really important. There's no point in moving halfway across the country if your wife will be unhappy. You'll be mortgage free, but what price happiness?

MummyMummy_2

i think it's a really good point about the house not selling in a bad area. there's a reason why the houses in certain areas are so cheap. it'd be horrible to do up your house just to find you are stuck with it as people aren't wanting to pay out for a lovely house in a bad area. me and my other half were seriously considering buying a 3bed new build house but i just couldn't get over the fact it was built literally on a council estate, all i could think was why would somebody want to buy this house off us when it comes time to sell? i couldn't justify paying so much per month when we could buy one of the houses on the council estate for around half of what we would be paying.

i don't know if this sounds silly but would moving to somewhere else in the country that is cheaper to rent not be a good idea? money saved on rent you can put towards a mortgage deposit?

in my area there are lots of 1/2bed apartments from like £300 and if it's just the two of you ie. no kids or animals then that might be an option... or what about a house share? there are numerous double room house share options available. i know that probally wouldn't be ideal, but you can save yourself alot of money and there's plenty of house shares available in really lovely new build houses in nice areas - so you get the best of both worlds... a lovely house and area to live in, yet you manage to save plenty also.

i don't have hands on if you like experience of property, just what i have read from others but it seems auctions can be good places to pick up a bargain... would something like that not be possible for you? maybe you could snap up a bargain in a decent area?

it's hard when you want to save but at the same time you also need to live haha good luck with whatever you decide! x

iB1

Iwanttobeatree wrote: »

@Pursey

i cant post links but

rightmove co uk / property-for-sale/property-32252110.html

^ i cant believe that house btw, 25k whats the deal with that ? the street looks alright to me, not too bad is it? i acutally like that house.

findaproperty com/displayprop.aspx?edid=00&salerent=0&pid=10586167

15k for this, i'd have money left over, unreal.

__________________

but yeah maybe at some point i'll want more for a 100k and look up north, but im thinking more creating a finacial base/cheap living for next few years and trying to keep some kind of happiness

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32252110.html

Looks like it's a repo and someone has placed an offer of 25k on it. No pictures of the inside so it may be a shell.

Also is there a rear garden? If so, it's very small.

Jesswithwings

I'm another Devonian, and I am never leaving here. We've recently been round the country visiting family, and it reinfoced to us how much we love living here. I'm sure there are beautiful parts of the country which we haven't seen , but I will put up with my stonking great mortgage in return for living so close to the sea, and the moors and the city (but not so close that we get city hassle)

LandyAndy

Iwanttobeatree wrote: »

@Pursey

i cant post links but

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32252110.html

^ i cant believe that house btw, 25k whats the deal with that ? the street looks alright to me, not too bad is it? i acutally like that house.

findaproperty com/displayprop.aspx?edid=00&salerent=0&pid=10586167

15k for this, i'd have money left over, unreal.

__________________

but yeah maybe at some point i'll want more for a 100k and look up north, but im thinking more creating a finacial base/cheap living for next few years and trying to keep some kind of happiness

Put the link in for you;).

That one caught my eye as well.

You'd have to go there to find the reason.

Iwanttobeatree

Badger_Lady wrote: »

If your wife's very settled in her current community, then I'd pause before uprooting...

In my case, I had a lot of friends at 'home' but no family to worry about. I've stayed in touch with those friends (although of course I see them less often), and have now established myself in the new community - I chose a cul-de-sac full of neighbours who are very socially involved with each other, in an area that has an active society doing things like tree planting, cultural celebrations and community choir.

It's not an area in which you could buy outright for £20k. You could get a nice starter home near the City centre for £70k.

yeah i guess pausing is the right thing to do here, maybe keep looking in our current area but i've been pausing and looking for maybe 2 years now i reckon, argh, i just want to ge my hands on a property to renovate!

glad you found a cool place though, i dont interact like you or my mrs does with neighbours personally but its cool

BigAunty wrote: »

I'm with LandyAndy on this one - properties that are ultra cheap are inevitably situated in economically depressed areas, with all the usual much higher than average nuisances, like crime, lack of jobs, etc. Absolutely no point in being mortgage free in a litter strewn slum with little prospect of decent work.

I bailed out from down south to Glasgow and have really enjoyed a greater standard of living at much lower cost. Bought a 2 bed flat in a lovely pocket of town a couple of miles from the city centre for £125k and where there are plenty of 1 beds for your budge where you can pay down the 80k balance quite quickly with a bit of drive and thrift.

At least the city has fab amenities - great shopping, good transport, surrounded by country side, good employment prospects.

However, a newcomer without good local knowledge and dazzled by cheap prices could easily end up in a slum area with high crime, there are huge pockets of incredibly run down areas.

My brother thinks he's king of the castle in a depressed mining town in yorkshire. it's a close community and at least he's got a job, but the high street is just a few charity shops with many boarded up empty places, transport is terrible, work opportunities really low. it makes my heart sink when I visit him.

thing is i work online and the mrs works in hospitals, so im thinking we could be situated in other areas and be so much better off if she can transfer (if possible).

I've lived in "scummy areas" before i personally dont mind for a few years as long as im not targeted for anything, but i guess thats always a risk.

I'll PM you if im coming to glasgow lol