Why are you living in your current location?

[No17CherryTreeLane]

How did you end up living where you are?

Work?
Schools?
Family connections/support?
Other?

We've lived in our current location for over 20 years.
The primary reason was for schooling, and this particular town was chosen as it had direct trains into London (where we moved from) for both our work.
In the intervening years, the majority of people we've met and become friends with have mostly said the same was true for them.

What are your reasons?

We had a 5yr old and wanted a bit of an adventure.

So we sold our house, put our belongings into storage and rented a holiday cottage for 2 weeks in another country to see what might happen!

We rented a lovely house near a park within the fortnight and bought a house nearby 6 months later, and have been here over 10 yrs now. We love living here. 🥰

I moved for a better quality of life around 6 years ago, having always lived in a big gritty city. It was a huge move as I had older teens so a tricky age, they moved for 6th form and I moved jobs too after 24 years in my old role. I had no family here but boy oh boy was it the best thing I have ever done. My DC thrived especially DS who changed beyond recognition in all the right ways. I still pinch myself that I live somewhere that is so beautiful, it has been a joy and brought immense happiness to my life.

Forty minutes from the city I was born in (Norwich) where my adult kids live, so can visit frequently. Live in a cottage by the sea, not far from Sandringham. Best of both worlds, lovely sea air, walks on the beach, which is great because I’m now semi retired and a dog walker. I have family and friends visit regularly, and can visit my home city, which is vibrant and amazing when I want. Best of both worlds, I’m blessed.

You may live in the same town as me.

Move here because my godparents lived here and hosted my wedding from a local venue. It had fab schools that were top of the Times league tables, commutable to London and was within the catchment of a relocation package my DH had with a new job - one that paid stamp duty, legal costs etc and meant were were able to buy a larger (if rather run down) house that would could ever dream of buying anywhere else. It’s still a lovely town for families despite significant changes in recent years.

Now, though, as my youngest is about to go to university, and the London train service is appalling (and has been ever since Covid), we are questioning what it holds for us now. We’re not sure our children will return here after uni and all the things we love are more readily accessible in London. We are a decade off statutory retirement, but all the associations/clubs are dominated by people who seem much much older than us so we are kind of in a limbo stage. Many of our friends are also at our stage, some with older kids having already moved ‘back home’ after covid to be closer to aging family, a few uncertain they will stay for similar reasons to us.

We plan to wait 3-5 years to see where our children settle and then consider selling up/moving to be closer to them or to enjoy our retirement elsewhere. DH is from the Midlands, but his parents are in their mid 80’s, and no-one he grew up with is in his [very lovely] home town anymore.

School

Convenience. Commuter town on the edge of one of the big northern cities. Near to a set of grandparents. Easy access to well paid jobs. Decent schools and kids hobbies ten a penny. Loads going on in the city at weekends.

Wouldn’t live here if we didn’t have kids though. Would have stayed in our previous more rural, coastal location. Suits DH and I more. Hope to retire back to somewhere similar one day.

We moved here for schools and because it’s a very nice town to live in. When I met dh he was living close by and had grown up in this area.

We are a bit stuck now. I don’t mind it but we’ve been here 18 years. I’m not sure I would recommend the area to anyone and if I had my time again I’m not convinced I would move here.
It’s a grammar school area which is becoming harder and harder to get into. It also send parents a bit fucking loopy to be honest.

It was becuse of work, he commuted one way and I commuted the other. His was 15 miles down the motorway and mins was 7 miles in to the edge of the city. We have retired now, I like our area a lot DH is less keen but we are going to live probably about 30 mins further North where the bang for your Buck is better. Our area has become much more expensive as people were pushed out of city prices.

Moved here in November because we wanted a slightly bigger house, bigger garden and to be in the countryside a bit more. Lived in our previous house for 22 years.

We chose the area seemingly at random because it’s a lovely village, and to my knowledge had no links at all to the area. We moved here from about 20 miles away.

Since we moved in I discovered that my paternal great grandparents used to live round the corner. My great grandfather used to play golf with our next door neighbour who died recently aged 90 and he knew him well (my ggrandad died before I was born). My maternal great grandmother was in service on the same road as my DD’s school. My Mum used to attend a college that shut down years ago and is two minutes from our house.

I do wonder if we’re somehow drawn to places.

Halfway ish between jobs (25 years ago anyway…).
Rural, but good motorway access not far
Reasonable house prices

We didn’t plan to have children when we moved here, and were delighted to discover excellent state schools when we did.

What an interesting thread!
Mine is a long story so might as later but fascinated by others!

All family members are close by meaning we have never had to pay for childcare, nice houses with nice neighbours are not expensive and we paid our mortgage off while we are still young meaning we have a good amount of disposable income meaning we’ve been able to travel extensively with our son, we have a small but busy high street, good schools a 5 minute walk away and the Peak District 30 minutes away.

We didn't know the area before moving here, but chose it because:

Commutable to London.
Relatively convenient for both our sets of parents (in between the two).
Good local schools.

I relocated here in 2000 for a job in the hospital. Four year years later I met dh who had also relocated to work in the same department as me. We both liked the town so we stayed here. Neither of us had any previous connections here.

We stopped once when driving through because there was a beautiful sunset and an ice cream van. We didn't know the area but sat eating ice cream and watching the sunset. It was a beautiful, no big deal, kind of event. A few years later we were looking to move, and after trying a few areas we thought we'd check out the ice cream town. That's turned out to be the best decision ever.

I grew up rural and hated it so would never have inflicted it on my own DC. They're adults now and tell me they definitely would have hated it! So I made the right choice. We're all definitely city people.

I moved here partly for work but I deliberately applied for jobs here knowing I wanted to live here. I wouldn't leave. Well, when I win the Euromillions, I want to move to Tokyo! But until then I'm staying put.

Half an hour from my home town. It's in the north east so I've got a 4 bed detached, double garage and a big garden for 200k in a lovely seaside village. Life is cheap and the cost of living crisis hasn't affected us really because of this.

We have "good" jobs in stable industries 20 mins down the road.

We are less than 30 mins from beautiful countryside, woodland, the moors, the sea. We have fantastic transport links so we can hop on a train and be in London or Edinburgh in a few hours.

Its never too hot or too cold, we don't get too much rain.

We love it here.

DP’s relatives moved here from Saxony about 1300 years ago, give or take, and the buggers have refused to set foot outside of the parish ever since so I moved here.

Moved here 11 years ago to build a business on the land.
We are surrounded by fields and the nearest neighbour is a quarter of a mile away, the nearest shop is 1.5 miles.

Love it, as do my kids who are now young adults.
They weren't too chuffed to be moving to the country but now absolutely love it.

Came to Uni here in 1993 and loved it, it always felt like home. After Uni I always revisited and said I wanted to move back. Took nearly 30 years to do it but we’ve been here 5 years now and absolutely love it. It’s even better than I remember.

After living in other places - accidentally moved home without intending to. Amenities are great though 10 minutes bus to the city, 10 minutes bus to the beach

In the same town I grew up in. Moved to the village outside the town when I was offered a 3 bed housing association house. Would like to move out but finances prevent that with with one dc still at university.

Work and then finding the first area outside the ones with grammar schools where there were comprehensives.

Moved her because of reasonable proximity to family and excellent schools. We liked our previous home, but would have only considered private education at that location.