Location Location Location

gemima

Not sure what to do.

We sold our house 2 weeks ago after only 2 viewings (it was priced realistically) and of course it is lovely (bias!).

We have been looking every spare moment we have and leaving our children with grandparents whilst doing so. We are in a bit of a quandry because we have seen a house which fits everything we need BUT wrong location.

We live in a cathedral city but the prices are so high and the people selling the type of house we are interested in are still living in cloud cuckoo land and keeping their asking price high (not selling though) - average income multiples in our area are 9.7x salary to buy the average house.

Anyway, the house we have seen is in a town about 8miles away from our city - its an OK place but alot of military and quite transient - not the best schools although I am sure when the time comes for our now 2.5 year old and 9month old we should be able to get them into a village school nearby if need be. There are alot of housing estates in the area and a big one being built now which is expensive in our opinion. We basically can't afford that type of house in our city (about 50k extra) but would be able to if prices dropped and we rented for a while (trouble is if the prices don't drop we have priced ourselves out of the market) and we also have 2 young children to consider.

We just don't know what to do - the area in question is really not where we want to live but we just can't afford that type of house here. I know the town in question is not far away and I do think it is on the up but even so...

Anyone got any thoughts or advice??
Renting is an option but not having done that before I am not sure how stressful it would be either.

Thanks

Dr_Moe_2

Eight miles is not a long commute (not where I live anyway), me thinks. If you love the house, can easily commute and you're going to be living there for the next 5+ years then go for it.

It all depends on individual circumstances. I recently located to Sale, south of Manchester having sold my house in the NE (it was realistically priced and I accepted a reasonable offer, hence sold in a week). Given the state of the market I was planning on renting for a few years but I couldn't find a reasonably priced 3 bedroom house- some of the prices are extortionate ( it seems some people are reluctant to sell in the current market climate and are trying to find someone to pay the entire monthly mortgage payment for them). It worked out cheaper to buy a house and port my fixed-rate mortgage. But again, I won't be moving out or upgrading for the next 5 years at least and the house I bought was not ridiculously priced.

natman

Hi,
I can really feel your pain with this.
I dont have an answer as such, but when anything like this happens to me i do the following -
Pros and cons - which its looks like your doing, weighing all the details up.
I then try to visuaise how life would be living their -
getting up in a morning, doing the school run, going to work etc, but really do it without rose coloured specs on.
8 miles might not be far, but I travel to work and its only 5 miles away and it can take me an hour.
So all I am saying is really sit down and imagine, how your life would be if you had to function in this new part of town.

It sounds as though you are trying to find good things to say about the house, but you dont really like the area.
Now obvioulsy I dont know your situation but someone once said this to me -
Always buy the worst house in the best area, rather than the best house in the worst. Now even though this may have some credit, if the house you have seen is ideal and you can really see yourself living their and making it work....................
Sorry cant answer your dilema though!!!!!
Good luck

Pooky23

In my opinion the most important factor is location. That's the advice my Dad gave me when I was looking for my first house and it has remained important to me ever since. I've moved 3 times now and always consider the location first, how the house looks second (must have kerb appeal or potential to improve kerb appeal) and lastly must be the right size/set up for my family. You find yourself in a difficult situation. Do you HAVE to move? Can you sit tight for say 6 months or another yeat to see how the market changes? Good luck and I hope you can come to a decision.

ccygirl

We had a lovely 4 bed house in a not so good area. The location was a problem for schools and good schools tend to be in good locations. The only reason we moved was to be in a nicer area. We had to spend £100K extra for an equivalent house in a much better area. Personally speaking location matters, you can change decoration, move walls, build extensions but you can't change location!