Where would you live? Escape to the country...

BakerBoy

I moved to Devon from London 20 years ago. Then Somerset Levels (loved it) Surrey (only 6 months), rural Bedfordshire (hated it), Cotswolds (OK-ish) and now back in Devon. And it really is lovely living here. I'm staying for life (unless the wife wants to leave, which might come about).

3 bed semi with garage & garden £187,000.

moneyistooshorttomention

I must admit I'm always astonished when people reply to threads like this by saying "I'm in so-and-so area and where I am is lovely". Its more a case of "Say nowt and then they wont come here too....".

I was somewhere that us locals like and we didn't need any more people (could have done with some fewer in fact) and we were NOT happy when attempts were made to attract others in.:(

Unless of course you are actually in an area that is underpopulated - in which case "Yep....come on in all....this is where it is", as the area needs some more people there.

I'm in an area now that is underpopulated...but I aint saying..though I would say that ideally the population here needs to be about 3 times as big as it is (ie so that there would be more facilities).

I tend to have the opinion that probably the best areas of the country are those where those already living there go "Yeh....its okay I suppose...it will do" in a very neutral tone of voice (translation = don't come here. We like it as it is).:cool:

goodwithsaving

CWSmith wrote: »

:rotfl:
Lived in Surrey (albeit the scabby, south London end) and last year moved to the north Cornwall coast.

Even today, when it's cold and wet, it is still the nearest thing to heaven on earth (in my opinion anyway). I would thoroughly recommend it. House prices are a shed load cheaper than Surrey too.

But being from that part of the world and having had to move away, the houses are "cheaper" because the wages are much lower. They aren't actually affordable for local people. It's all relative.

moneyistooshorttomention

goodwithsaving wrote: »

But being from that part of the world and having had to move away, the houses are "cheaper" because the wages are much lower. They aren't actually affordable for local people. It's all relative.

Very true.:T

I've had to move from my own area because of the pressure of people wanting to buy houses there - many of whom came from even dearer areas.

Which then had the knock-on effect of me having to move to a cheaper area of the country to buy a house that looked cheap to me, but us incomers coming here in turn makes houses here more expensive than they otherwise would be (and, in turn, some of them cant afford to live in their own area).

So...that means I'm "pushing out" because I was "pushed out" myself. Not an ideal situation....

Hanky_Panky

Lauraj1391 wrote: »

I live in Surrey now but would love to retire to somewhere like Cornwall everyone seems happy there by the coast compared to miserable people in Croydon!

Sorry to burst your bubble but my F-I-L who lives in Cornwall mentioned a while ago that Cornwall in the winter has the highest suicide rate in Britain !

Apart from that, yes it's a great place although not as nice and idyllic as the South Wales coast from Gower all the way west and up.

CWSmith

goodwithsaving wrote: »

But being from that part of the world and having had to move away, the houses are "cheaper" because the wages are much lower. They aren't actually affordable for local people. It's all relative.

That is more or less very true. The wages aren't that bad in fact ....... but there is very little work. Where I live, there is either shop, bar or farm work and much of that is seasonal.

There is what is called an "industrial estate", but bears no relation to the industrial estates back in London, it being little more than a handful of small garage-size factories/shops and two small office blocks.

I do wonder what the young 'uns do when they leave school here.

moneyistooshorttomention

This is the thing about some "further flung" areas. Its true of the area I'm in now.

There aren't many jobs available in the first place. Add in the fact that it looks rather like even some of the local young people won't get given some of them (ie the public sector ones) because they aren't fluent in Welsh and the primary "qualification" to get at least some of these public sector jobs is deemed to be fluent Welsh, rather than qualifications/experience/etc.

I've felt very sympathetic to local young people explaining to me how they felt that they weren't being judged for jobs just on things like their qualifications/experience/etc and having a fair "crack of the whip" due to not having that fluency in Welsh.

How to lose some of your best people from the area...because they've had to move:(...so no "it aint just house prices forcing them out"...at least not according to the local young people I have been talking to. Good for the rest of the country...because they do seem to expect to have to work hard...but not very good for here.