Rich area vs Poor area

[ermopoli]

Would you rather live in a rich area or a poor area?

Say a 3 bedroom terraced house in a rich area or a 5 bedroom detached house with a swimming pool in a poor area?

I’d take the three bed in the rich area. Likely to be safer and have nicer schools and local facilities.

Rich area - less likely to be burgled if your house is the cheap one in a sea of mansions.

I’ve gone for the three bed in the nice area

We live in a poor area very far up north, we love it and would hate to live in a rich area like the south east as want the space. Would I live in an area with high crime no.

We've done both. Our first home was in a rough area, got us on the ladder but we knew it was short term and moved to a village to have kids in a smaller house.

There's arguments for both, you can have a better way of life in a bigger home with lots of space etc or in a quieter neighbourhood.
For me, it's location, location, location.

I guess it depends on the areas themselves. We moved from a more affluent area, down the road to the less affluent one, because it meant we could get a 4 bed house - we were crammed into a 2 bed in the nicer area. It's literally a postcode thing, snobby people want the XX1 postcode and not XX2. Our house is lovely and a 10 minute walk from our old tiny house in XX1. We've had no more issues where we live now, in fact our neighbours are so much nicer here. We did our research before moving but ultimately bigger house in "poor" area was definitely the right move for us

It would really depend on the areas. We live in a “worse” area for a better, bigger house and garden. We are beside a more well-to-do area so in the catchment area for good schools with kids from diverse social groups (kids from both areas). Where we are is quiet - it looks a bit down at heel but it’s not unsafe.

I live in the nicest house in a shitty area and don't rate the experience highly at all. We're buying a house in a much nicer area, and the house is a pretty bog standard one for the street. I'm looking forward to living in a place with no litter and dog shit on paths, neighbours who look after their gardens, and schools that aren't bottom of the rankings.

Moving here was a mistake, frankly.

Agree, it really depends. We also went for " worse" area and bigger house but it is a buzzing multicultural area and we love it. I would hate a homogenous sterile area full of the same type of people. But a crime ridden area with a serious drug problem would be a different story.

Location is something you cannot change but if the rich area house made my life difficult ie. Not enough bedrooms for 1 per child I probably couldn’t opt for it.

There’s usually a good reason why houses are more expensive in desirable areas. Usually the advice is to go for the worst house in the best street rather the other way round. You can always renovate the “worst house” but you cant change an area, although some people get lucky and over many years an area will gentrify and property will increase in price. Just make sure you do actually have the time and money (or ability to increase your mortgage) to do any necessary renovation. There’s no point maxing out your Mortgage for a nicer area if you’re sitting under a leaky roof for 10 years and making yourself miserable because you can’t afford to fix anything.

I wouldn’t just look at the house itself. I would be looking at saleability and property increases over time for both areas. You don’t want to be stuck in a big house in an area that you hate having little equity in your house while the areas you’d prefer to move to have priced you out. Factor in inflation and interest rates. When you look at some properties they have barely increased with standard inflation, never mind making any extra so that you’d have a deposit to take to your next house.

Worst house on the better street is preferable to best house on worst street for sure.

I’ve done both, honestly I’d pick the better area every time, and I don’t mean north v south or anything, more a poorer area in the same geographical location where I got much more house for my money and a smaller house in a more affluent area. I’d pick the better area every time now, your surroundings are key.
however there is a third option, the 4 bed in the middle area.

Always always take the shot house in a good area. You can improve the house. You can't improve the area - so your value will top out.

“Buzzy” doesn’t suit all people though. Everybody’s different. Some people who are more introverted want a quiet calm and peaceful home to retreat to at the end of the day, to sit in their garden and listen to the birds. They don’t like a lot of traffic noise. Others like a busier area with lots of people and actually LIKE to hear life going on around them, and to be able to pop 50 metres down the road to the shop or for a coffee. They welcome a bus stop being a few houses do

depends what you’re looking for. People say the suburbs are boring but a good suburb has a bit of peace and quiet with all the amenities you need and only a short ride into the city centre.

for some people only truly peaceful and slow will do.

no-one’s right or wrong. It’s all individual preference.

Our area is diverse and a bit hipster, but also down to earth, as it has useful shops like Homebase.

The posh area next to us is not only exclusively bars and restaurants with nothing useful, but it's also flanked by two crime-ridden shithole neighbourhoods, and cars are constantly being stolen.

I'd go for a worse house in a nicer area overall, as long as it wasn't an unreasonable compromise and we had enough useful living space.

When we were looking for our house there were some very high spec houses that had been extended with style over substance design choices and on for a fortune, but one look at the map showed the area wasn't great. They were obviously hoping to make their money back on the very flash renovations.

The people with that sort of budget unlikely to be swayed to a worse area by various technological gadgets and voice controlled ambient lighting.

Depends on the type of "poor" area really. If it's largely inhabited by working people in proper jobs or retired people, then I'd be fine with it. If it's largely inhabited by druggies or people in the black economy or other kinds of socially problematic people, then no way! No all "poor" people are the same!!!

Isn't the question more would you live in the poor part of the town you live in for a bigger house not which town or region you would pick.

I've done both (well, no swimming pool!) and I'd take the nicer area every time. We moved from a not great area to a much nicer area for a better school catchment. I've never regretted it, though we'd be a lot closer to being mortgage free if we'd stayed put!

Surely 5 bed houses with swimming pools don't exist in poor areas?

We had a gorgeous 7 bed house in an area that is one of the most deprived in Europe. I hated living there, though to be fair we were never burgled and I adored the house. Moved to a 4 bed in an affluent suburb of our nearest city. This house is half the size of our last, but cost twice as much. Tbh, I’ve never really settled. Our neighbours are all very elderly. Sometimes I feel like I’m living on the set of ‘Cocoon’. Interestingly, I’ve never been aware of more car thefts anywhere I’ve ever lived.

In my poor area, the neighbours were fine. No issues, very friendly, to be honest slightly more issues in the rich area, as one of the neighbours is an entitled bullying pos, but the rest are lovely . In the poor area the surroundings were not so nice, the shops , the high street, lots of vadalism , kids hanging out in the park doing drugs and drinking at night, more anti social behaviour. Where as in the rich area we don’t really encounter that.

and that’s why I’d pick the more affluent area. It’s the overall area for me.

We chose to live somewhere that is the middle, deliberately. Another local place is very well-to-do and the people are awful.

I also grew up somewhere like this and was adamant I didn’t want to be surrounded by the pushy competitive well-to-do’ers. It’s all relative - where we live is very nice, just not full of those types who I can’t bear.