If you could live anywhere in the UK, would you stay where you are?

[IHateThinkingUpANewUsername]

Essentially just that. But if you are interested, some background below:

My husband has a new job which is wfh (not just covid) with odd travel into the office. ‘The office’ can be any of the company offices in the country though, as in, he can pick, not that they could call him into Newcastle if we lived in Brighton. There are offices relatively all over the UK. I’m currently a SAHM with no career ties to our current area.
We met at uni, got married and settled in an area that was relatively close to both of our parents. Well, they’ve all fucked off in different directions with retirement.
We think we are happy where we are and don’t have a massive budget as we’d be borrowing on one salary, so maybe £300k?
We could get a nice semi or a bit of a shit detached where we are now.

I live in Wiltshire as all my family live here, and my dad is getting towards the age were being closer to help him out would be easier. But I spent 15 years in North Yorkshire and loved it and if it were within 2 hours drive of Wiltshire I would move back without hesitation, I really miss living there.

No. I'd live within 30 minutes of the sea not 2 hours away.

Ooh I love the thought of Edinburgh, well actually, outside Edinburgh but easily commutable! We live MUCH further south though and I struggle with the short days enough - I’m not sure I could go that far North! There is (unsurprisingly) an Edinburgh office.

We live in a rural market town now, 1hr from nearest city (big primark, wider range of restaurants etc) and around 2.5 hours on the train from London which means pre-children we could just about do a day trip. I like the idea of more rural (village, or ideally no neighbours ) but I can’t deny living in a small town is useful with children!

No, if I had the money I'd live in central London.

Just moved to the coast, so much nicer than the Midlands. I am near a decent city though

Ps, your budget wouldn't buy what you are after here, I would look at the ne coast eg County Durham

I live in the Cotswolds and its a wonderful life.

Go on iPlayer and watch “Escape to the Perfect Town”, or — if you fancy a more rural lifestyle — “Escape to the country”. I’m currently addicted. They’re both fabulous programmes for introducing you to different areas of the UK, and giving you an idea of what you’d get for your money.

I’d love to live in Somerset, Devon or Dorset. I’ve promised DS2 that we won’t move until he’s finished secondary school (3 more years), but then I’m off!

I think living by the sea would be lovely. In one of those shows, a woman relocated from
Clapham to Devon, and they showed her round Totnes, Brixham (I think) and another place. For £325k she could afford lovely 2-bed houses, or big-ass apartments. That was only 2 years ago. Or, another couple were selling their Twickenham terrace and moving up to Melton Mowbray, which apparently is a really buzzy, vibrant place. They found a massive detached 4-bed with a walled garden for £315k.

I think COVID WFH will mean lots of people drift away from London, and hopefully previously unloved places (like seaside towns) will get a new lease of life.

Good luck, OP! Exciting.

I'm in Cardiff - wouldn't mind moving somewhere a bit more rural, but I always want to stay in Wales and you can get a lot for your money in most places! For your budget you could afford somewhere amazing in Caerphilly, and that's a lovely little town with one of the most beautiful castles in the UK.

I live on the outskirts of a town in North Wiltshire. Close to London one way and Bristol the other (on the mainline or motorway). The coast is less than 2 hours west or south. The Midlands are less than 2 hours north. Central and surrounded by lovely countryside. I feel lucky to live where I do.

No I wouldnt. I'd live somewhere pretty such as devon, cotswolds, n Yorkshire coast etc.
DH is a stuck in the mud and despises countryside! So we live close to a massive city that we rarely take advantage of even in pre covid times.

I live in an area which regularly features in the quality of life surveys (near or at the top) and so in some ways I'd be mad to move. But on the other hand, you pay quite a lot for a house so it would make sense to move elsewhere - there are so many nice areas with decent housing that are cheaper. As DH wants to retire I have been having a look at rightmove to consider possibilities including:

Cirencester (doesn't have a railway station though)
Lichfield
Teignbridge Devon
Kent
Sandbach

I would like to live in Exeter but it's not cheap for a character house (we are currently in a 1960s box). I'd also happily live in Edinburgh or Glasgow, or Cardiff. Or the posh bits of Liverpool. I like cities, so opposite to you OP!

I also like Salisbury but DH doesn't except for the cathedral.

I love it here, near Newcastle upon Tyne. I live on the outskirts of a small town about 7 miles from the city. The town is surrounded by bridle ways and fields, I can see the sea in the distance, it’s only a short car drive away. The proper open countryside is only a few miles away, castles, coastlines, woods. It’s an easy trip to Edinburgh or the lakes for the day. Houses are cheap, my 3 bed detached was significantly under your budget.

When I retire I may move to Scotland though, family is tying me here for now but the coast and countryside is similar in both locations.

Yes 100%. Possibly a different area but the same city. I left home when I went to university. I fell in love with my uni city and within 6 months I had decided that I wanted to live there permanently.
I met my husband who is from my uni city and we got married and had a baby. My family, well my mum mostly convinced me that I should move back 'home', so my family were around. Stupidly I agreed and we did.
I was so unhappy the whole time. I hated being back in the place I'd finally got away from (I have a lot of bad memories from the city I grew up in that I left behind the day I moved 250 miles away). I said to my husband "I want to go home", so we did. We lived there for 10 months, it felt like a lifetime.
We moved back to the city I went to university in, by which I mean we came home, where we should have stayed. That one sentence changed our lives and our futures, by far the best 5 words I've ever said. We couldn't be happier, we're home, where we've always wanted to be. We will never leave here again.

Everyone assumes it was my husband who wanted to move back as well, obviously he wasn't going to be unhappy about it. But everyone seems so shocked and surprised that it was me that said about wanting to go home, that I wanted it even more than he did

Re Edinburgh and short days - the payoff for shorter winter days is of course longer summer evenings!

I wouldn’t move from here, it feels like home, but then I get homesick when I’m away for a week’s holiday.
You need to think about where those offices are and how for your DH would be prepared to travel to get to one.
Do you want to live near your parents so you can help out when they are elderly ?
Do you want to live in the country, by a beach, in a city ? You need to narrow it down, then go for a visit and a look around.

I'd stay right where I am in the Surrey countryside, surrounded by beauty and only 30 mins to the nearest (lovely, dog friendly, sandy) beach. I love my old cottage and don't ever want to leave!

I live in Cornwall, and it's lovely. I walk by the sea every day. It's a long way from stuff, obviously, though.
Pre-Covid, DH travelled up to Taunton every six weeks or so for the day for work, which was fine. Bristol is do-able too.
I'm used to living by the sea now, and would find that hard to give up, but parts of Yorkshire have much to recommend them and possibly more family-friendly, depending on the ages of your kids. (I do know Yorkshire does have some sea, but I don't know those bits at all!)

we live in Wales near the severn bridge.
Our families in the main are in Devon - which is beautiful but not many decent jobs/nightmare in summer/ hours to get anywhere up country which is why we never settled there.

Where we are we can be in Bristol/Cribbs causeway in 20 minutes, Cardiff is 30-40 min away. so all the things like big shops, concerts, sporting events, festivals, museums etc are nearby, We then also have newport 20 min away for things like the big B&Q, school uniform shopping, cinema, pleasure pool with slides etc. Then local towns have normal small shops, supermarkets, doctors, dentists schools etc.
We also have lots of countryside on our doorstep, the forest of dean, wye valley and even the brecon beacons arent far.
We dont have beaches nearby but there are some lovely ones within an hours drive, but beacuse we go to Devon alot to see family we get our beach fix then.

I live in south west. It has been good during lockdown, I can walk to the beach from my house, so dc have enjoyed lots of outdoor time. However I hate it in the summer it's too busy and crowded. Getting to work at the hospital takes forever because of all the traffic on the roads. On Saturday, change over day the roads are gridlocked and you can't get anywhere.

I didn't get to enjoy restaurants etc last summer when they reopened because they were crazy busy.
However my children are settled in school with good friends so I wouldn't move unless I had to.

I’d like to live where I do, but with better weather! We live up north, by the sea with cheap house prices and DS has just started in year 7 at a Grammar School, which is incredible and the reason why we won’t be moving anywhere in the next 6+ years.

So we have what a lot of people on this thread are longing for but my god, the weather is so shit! It’s always windy and always a few degrees colder than anywhere else. We’re also near the Lake District so it’s constantly raining. The weather has the biggest effect on my mental health, which sounds silly but it’s true!

Work pulled us here - and pretty much everywhere post Univeristy and once the kids are post school years we'll almost certainly move again.

But I love the current house - it brilliantand the location isn't bad - perhaps wish we were a bit closer to city center - though covid and shop closures have hit it really hard. Wish secondary was better it's been a a downward slump.

I'd probably suggest priotising schools even with youngest being just 2.5 - and also think about secondary though be aware they can change with time - then think about what you want - village, town city and what you wish to be near - swimming pools, GP, shops theaters and maybe try thinking longer term - are you expecting to be in area with teens so what you might want then.

Good transport links are always useful - but more so if you don't drive or only have one car - do you want to be near country side walks or beaches?

We grew up rural but prefer cities and cities with access to surrounding counrtyside and generally good transport links to nearby places.

I’d like to live where I do, but with better weather!

We've ended up treking more and more south and I have to say as I get older I've noticed the slightly better weather and slighty ealier spring and very much appreciated it.