How do you find the optimum place to live?

ReadingTim

Simple!

• The house you want
• The location you want
• The price you want

Pick 2...

chris_m

Towser wrote: »

Why do companies publish Quality of Life Indexes then?

To make people think they know what they are talking about?
To get people to visit their websites?
To try and persuade people to buy their products/services?

Towser

Is there no use for Quality of Life Indexes then?

chris_m

Well, there is one use - it keeps the people who produce them off of the unemployment stats

Towser

I am guessing according to the statistics Wokingham is the optimum place to live.

Does anybody know of Wokingham? Is it nice would you live there?

questionss

We're in Hertfordshire - it was number 3 in both tables above... There are many lovely bits, there are also bits I'd avoid at all costs. A one bed flat in my village costs similar to a 2bed house in a town 10-15min away. The house I am buying I could buy very similar in another town 4miles way and pay about 60% of the cost... Would I - never! Likewise a similar property in the Hertfordshire hotspot of St. Albans would cost half as much again as what I'm paying.

We moved out of London to St Albans but then moved to our current village.

What did we look for when we moved? Train lines out of London ideally into kings cross/euston/Liverpool st & as fast a service as possible.

Once we identified a fast service to KX we went to the station around morning rush hours etc to see if driving to the station was a possibility or if we had to be walking distance. Once we realised driving to the station was reasonable and not the endurance test it is in major towns we then set our search area within a 3-4mile radius and went to look at the villages/areas/communities.

We now live in a beautiful, small yet active village, my son walks to school across fields and yet the train into London is less than 3miles away and takes 17min on a fast train (up to 32min on slower trains).

Towser

Yes Hertfordshire has some lovely spots. We found our current spot by the same method. Village location with 40 mins travel by train to Euston, London.

We moved out of London to Tring but then moved to our current village.

I am guessing according to the statistics Wokingham is the optimum place to live.

Does anybody know of Wokingham? Is it nice would you live there?

jacko74

There's some wild swings in that index..
Edinburgh up from 97 to 1
Anglesey down from 6 to 82
Short of a minor nuclear incident I can't really understand how these places could have such a drastic change in desirability in such a short space of time?

Edit - Just realised the figures are position changes rather than previous positions

Towser

Do you live in one of the 50 best places in the UK? A tranquil corner of Hampshire tops the list for an impressive fifth year

A district of Hampshire has been named as offering residents the best quality of life in the UK for an impressive fifth year in a row. Residents earn well above the average salary in Hart, Hampshire, and are the healthiest in the UK, according to the annual top 50 places to live in the UK list by Halifax. The South East dominated the top 50, securing seven of the top 10 places. South Oxfordshire climbed 19 places to take second place, while Mole Valley in Surrey moved up 12 spots to seventh place. Guildford also rose up the table by 15 spots to eighth position. Chiltern and Winchester, both in the south east, took third and fourth places respectively, while Rutland in the East Midlands dropped to fifth place. Waverley in the south east climbed from 10th last year to sixth this year, while South Cambridgeshire came in at ninth (from 13 last year), and Rushcliffe in the East Midlands went out to tenth.

Davesnave

Reading articles about how other people live their lives is no substitute for making the best of life, wherever you are. Different locations please and displease people in infinite ways.

So, whatever factors are chosen for statistical research, they will surely receive different ratings according to the personality of individuals.

And without putting to fine a point on it, there are losers everywhere.