could you tell me about it, please?
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is it nice?
what is the commute like (London Bridge)
which areas to live in/avoid?
how functional is the town?
what are transport links like? other than trains - does traffic really snarl up? will we spend hours stuck getting out onto the motorway etc?
not too bothered about schools, as dd1 is in an excellent SN school, and I am no way moving her, so I need to do a lengthy-ish school run anyway, therefore dd2 might as well stay where she is too. although independent secondary options would be good to know about (some years away yet though, as dd2 only 5).
houses there seem to be about £100-150k cheaper than where we currently are, and so I am suspicious.
budget is about £650-700k, and we would appear to be able to get a lot of house for that money - why?
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anyone live in/know anything about Caterham?
silverfrog · 09/01/2012 12:39
thanks for the replies.
ladymuck - we live on the warlingham line already (bit further down), so we know it's faster etc. I can well believe people woudl commute across - I was a little baffled by the length of the Caterham commute, but it's not too bad. especially as we have seen acouple of houses within walking distance of the station (thus negating parking fees etc)
interesting re: free parking at warlingham. will have to look into that.
the warlingham side would suit us both better - the faster trains for dh, and my run down to dd2's school would be less of a dogleg too. but woudl be more of a slog for me returning from dd1's school run - again, 6 and 2 3s 
also back to getting less house for our money. and we have 2 adult children, 2 small children and one on the way! space is something we do need, ideally!
latetotheaprilparty: it's odd, isn't it? it seems so much cheaper. the town seems nice enough (haven't really spent any time there, but have been through a couple of times), and the houses/roads also seem nice. where we are currently (paying extortionate rent) is a much less functional town, for eg, and similar houses. 15 mins less on the train. but otherwise, can't see why it costs so much more here than Caterham 
Caterham is seen as being not as naice as for example Oxted, it's a Croydon postcode rather than a Surrey one, and the secondary school is "worse" than the others locally. It's all perception though, as it has it's nice bits and it's not so nice bits. Can be problems in the winter though as the higher bits get cut off.
Think the house prices have a lot to do with snobbery 
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Silverfrog, you must live fairly near me, further down the Warlingham line, in which case you've probably worked out how the sniffy attitudes can affect prices round here 
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had already noticed the Croydon postcode (in my defence, I always check, as have to ensure we are not moving out of LA boundaries, due to dd1's statement. so needed to check the croydon postcode still came under the right authority for us).
do you know which bits are nice, and which bits aren't?
we did a bit of a drive around last weekend, spotting the houses we had seen on rightmove etc, and noted the hills already - definite areas to avoid there, as being cut off doesn't appeal hugely.
yes - dh and I are a bit mystified as to why the prices are so much more though.
we cannot find a house round here that is big enough, and not near either the motorway or the railway line (and by near I mean right next too) for under a million.
bonkers.
and while it is naice enough, it ain't exactly paradise
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