Country living or town? Help please

[jenophie]

Hello,

This is my first post. Sorry for the long post. Hope you can make it to the end

We moved to our house in the suburbs nearly 2 years ago from a farm house in the middle of fields, as we have 2 toddler boys (currently pregnant with another boy) and thought it would be better closer to family (it's not). Our current house is on the edge of the countryside so we do have easy access to the countryside. It has fantastic amenities all within a 20 min walk. Good schools (5 min walk). Everything a family could ask for really although its rough down the bottom our road, which is a slight concern for when my sons are old enough to play out.

One of my main issues is, I'm finding it really difficult to adjust living back within a community and having neighbours. We have good neighbours I just prefer my own privacy. The house is a 6 bed Victorian terrace with a small garden, so although the house is big enough for our family, I don't feel the garden is big enough for 3 sons, once they get older. We do have fields/nature reserve opposite so they could run off steam there.

We are very fortunate that we have 100k equity in the house, so this is also a reason for moving. We are in 20k debt too so selling up, paying off the debt would really help. We would be going back to renting long term though, but could operate a business long term from a rural property. Also, we would have to get in further debt to get the house ready for selling so that would put some extra pressure on us to sell fairly quickly.

My partner and I are really struggling to make a decision as there are so many variables to take in to consideration.

Another thing to point out is that we have moved to the north west from Warwickshire and there is a noticeable difference in weather, it just seems, damp, cold and rainy here most of the year and summers are rubbish.

I just feel that moving further down south, maybe by the beach (definitely rural but close to a town) would be a better childhood for my children or am I just being selfish wanting no neighbours and being out in the sticks?

I really would be thankful if anyone can offer any advice?

Your feelings and preferences are important. However, I don't think it'll be very easy for 3 boys to be far away from anybody else - it's lovely for children to be in a community with a lot of friends and activities around.
What is it that bothers you about having neighbours?
I'd also be very reluctant to get off the property ladder and I'd worry that the released equity might end up frittered away over the years.

Could you compromise and move to a smaller house (you don't need a massive 6-bedder, do you?) with a bit more outside space? Perhaps a semi or even detached but close enough to things to satisfy the needs of other members of your family?

The things that strike me are:

I think two years isn't a very long time to adapt to a new environment.

You need to do your sums very carefully, taking into account schools. We live in the south, house prices are phenomenal for both renting and buying and rack up considerably near the better schools. I'm not sure your dream is very realistic financially.

For example, we live down south, two working graduates with about £200k equity. We live in a run down 2 bed house which we have no hope of ever owning outright.

My idea of a happy life would be a stable, permanent roof over my dc's heads, reasonable schools, some money to go out, go on the odd holiday. We don't have that here but we probably would if we moved to the Midlands.

It's very hard making life changing decisions I think.

Don't forget that south+beach= tourists in the summer months.

You will not only pay high prices competing with 2nd home owners if you want to live somewhere sunny and desirable but you'll also be overrun with the tourist crowd for months and months and may not want to go near the beach or those lovely things you moved to be close to.

Lots of cheaper seaside places are very sad out of season. Low employment and high deprivation too. It seems to be one or the other. There are beautiful, quiet, affordable coastal places around but they are far north and so you're back to the weather/dark conundrum.

Thank you for your replies :)

It's not that I'm anti-social or anything, I am polite with our neighbours and get on well with them, I think it's getting used to living with people around us again. We were in our own little bubble in our last house and rarely saw anyone apart from Royal Mail and couriers. Also, the walls are quite thin, and you can hear the neighbours most days, it's not shouting or swearing, just bumps here and there, and muffled talking.

I have thought about moving within the area to a semi or something a bit more private but we run our business from home so need the space. I've looked at alternative properties but they just don't seem to have the space we require for work.

I have thought about when the boys get older and want to play with their friends and of course all the activities close by - we would definitely be isolating them moving to the country dependent on actually where we go. Our last house house was in the countryside but 5 mins from a market town and 20 mins from a city, so we would still be able to access activities but we would have to drive more.

An isolated house would be hell for me, anyway. And most beach towns I know have lots of deprivation.
I imagine you know in your heart what would make you happiest.
There may be many drawbacks you need to expect & you will have to take on the chin ... like paying for your teens to drive as early as possible (lessons, vehicle, insurance...) and watching them move away as fast as possible because as adults maybe they will find the area very boring or simply No Jobs.