* Would you sacrifice where you WANT to live in order to buy a home? *

jaype

Agree with Alan - unless you are 100 per cent certain, don't buy now. The market is very odd adn if it all does collapse you will be stuck there. Could you really go on for years not wanting to speak to your neighbours?

MJMum

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brainiac44

Yes you are right space rider, the only problem I have now is a flock of thousands of wild geese that have decended on the field opposite

yeah i had that. roger moore really chewed up the grass seed i had sown and richard harris had fouled all the guttering.

Jeewhizz

I wouldn't go near new addington / forestdale area at all to be honest. I've lived in Croydon all my life, and currently I'm by EC station in a rented 3bed semi. We're moving out to Cambs (due to exchange very soon!) and we're able to buy a 4 bedroom detatched house w/ garage, driveway etc for about 2/3rds the value of the house we're renting! Shocking!

You could look at the croydon side of thornton heath/norwood, but it's still not idea. Croydon house prices have rocketed, and it's going to out-class the lower earners very shortly, if it hasn't already.

UK007BullDog

We sacrificed where we wanted to live with the needs of the childrens education. Once we found an area that was still in the catchment area of a the grammar schools we then looked at the cheapest areas found a house we could afford but not love and bought it and moved in.

Now the kids are finished with School we are looking to buy in an area we like and do not have to worry about schools. Also now as the kids are out of the house (well not quite as yet but they have their own lives and one earns money) we can now look for a property we will love until we die. And we still have a few years to plow all of our earnings into the mortgage to ensure its paid off when retiring.

Alan_M_2

brainiac44 wrote:

yeah i had that. roger moore really chewed up the grass seed i had sown and richard harris had fouled all the guttering.

:rotfl:

I think you have to be of an age to get this...certainly had a chuckle at it.

CB1979_2

yep, personally would stay away from Thornton Heath, South Norwood, West Croydon, Central Croydon & some parts of East Croydon! lol

defo would not go down New Addington way either!
South Croydon, Purley, Caterham, Coulsdon, Wallington, Carshalton Beeches are the areas I'd look for, especially with good schools (not sure about Caterham though) and close to enough still to Croydon.

not sure if you said but how much is your budget?

just out of interest you say your child din't get into any of the schools applied for, why was that? failed the entrance exam or just bad luck?

cos if failed exam, then not really much you can do to avoid them going to the "not so good schools" unfortunately.

I would hate to bring up a child in the areas I mentioned at the start of the post, far too much attitude and "gangsta" wannabe's in them areas from the age of 12-16, before they actually turn into proper scumbags and become "gangstas". (no offence meant but just wouldn't want my kids to be mixing with them)

Alan_M_2

It doesn't help that Croydon is the headquarters of immigration for the entire country, Lunar House.

CharleneUK

At this point in time, there are no definite answers as to why my daughter didn't get it. 3 of the schools were tests, 2 of which she found easy, Shirley High test was a bit tricky.

3 Schools were church schools. Our budget is maximum £190,000, then take off the £30,000 from the assisted private purchase scheme and the £12,000 we've been saving, will leave us to pay a mortgage of £150,000.

D&DD

Charlene I don't know if you or hubby are in a key worker job but in our area there are a few good deals going for people in these types of work?