Move to a cheap area... Is this life's secret?

[Pestopastamad]

I currently live in a 'nice' area in the north, which by northern standards is relatively expensive (most expensive postcode in our city).
My partner and I earn an okay combined salary, but a huge proportion of this goes on the house, it's still 'within our means' on paper, though. We both work full-time and haven't got a mortgage yet, we rent, but are looking to buy around where we live now in the next 12 months.

Lately, I've been feeling a bit fed up with our work-life balance, and weirdly I've noticed I feel very envious of the people I see at work who don't work/work part-time/ earn less than us but seem to still manage to own a house, buy what they like, drive nice cars and go on holidays.
It's made me wonder if I'm doing it all wrong and I'm questioning my decision to buy in an expensive area, when I could buy in a less desirable area for a fraction of the price and have a lot of money left at the end of the month.
I can't stop fantasising about a life of working part time , eating out constantly and travelling where I want when I want, because the mortgage would be so cheap.

Is there such a thing is a balance, finding a decent house in a 'middle ground' area, and having lots of disposable income left? Or is it a fantasy and would I just hate not living where I do now? All of my family (and most friends) live in the same postcode as we do now, and I am questioning my motives for wanting to stay around here - keeping up appearances/ what will the family think!! I wonder if this is common for those my my age group (mid to late 20's) because of the ridiculous cost of housing!

Please share your opinions and experiences...

How handy are you? It might be worth considering a cheaper, slightly rundown house in the area you like. Once you’re in you can gradually make changes to put your own stamp on it.

Agree with rundown house in nice area.

The older you get, the less you'll want to live in a rough area.

I think it depends on what's important to you. I think there are two kinds of cheaper areas - those that are quite rough and run down and not desirable for that reason, and then others that are just a bit of a distance from big cities and may not have lots of going on but are perfectly nice in their own way...

I currently live on the outskirts of London and plan to move somewhere else within the next couple of years. I'm self employed and can work from anywhere (and don't have kids) so it makes sense to me - I don't really go anywhere anyway so there's no need for me to live in a busy, high pollution area where houses are expensive if I can have no mortgage and live somewhere quieter in a nicer house. But I also have friends who are the absolute opposite and seem happy to pay higher rents/live in a tiny flat if that means they can be in the city centre with a tube station round the corner and lots going on.

I think we compromised for this reason. We bought on the 'nicer' side of town but not the most expensive area. We've got a 3 bed semi and an easily manageable mortgage (pre-kids we had lots of disposable income, less now). We could have got a bigger detached house on the other side of town for the same mortgage. We could have also afforded a bigger mortgage and stayed in a similar area to where we are now.

I sometimes feel jealous of those with a bigger detached house, but I am happy generally with the balance we have now

There's been a ripple affect where I live. We lived in an expensive Scottish city but when wanting a bigger house we moved out of the city. Into an area where many of the people I went to high school with have moved to!

We lucked out though. Fantastic transport links, great vibe in the area (really great) and loads of other plus points. A few negative points too but nothing staggering.

We got more house for our money, a great lifestyle and some money to enjoy it with.

Just bear in mind school catchment areas - if this is going to be relevant.

It depends, I moved out of London to Devon so I could afford a house but the wages are also a lot lower here so I still struggle

We bought our house on a nice council estate with the plan to move after 5 years but we are still here years later. Tbh there’s nowhere really rough in our city and crime is very low. We’re on the “right” side of town and just over the road from some very desirable streets. Most of the houses are bought and the council ones are very well maintained, I know most of our neighbours and we chat and help each other out. We don’t have a posh cafe but we have a great fish and chip shop, a post office and a Co-op and 15 minute walk to city centre. It was apparently quite rough 40-50 years ago and I think some people do still think of it like that which really doesn’t bother me. We are a 20 minute walk to the hospital where I work, so there are a lot of hospital staff live here mainly support staff but even a couple of doctors.

DC when they came along got into a good Catholic school on our doorstep which got ASD DS into an excellent secondary school. I managed to go part time working nights which has I think made a massive difference to DS and DD10 who is also being assessed. As an NHS nurse my pay didn’t go up for 8 years but we can still afford a 2-3 week holiday abroad in the school holidays, a weekly take away, birthday parties, days out and swimming lessons, sports clubs and other weekly hobbies for the kids. We have a great lifestyle with 3DC that we wouldn’t have if we chose a better area.

I disagree and am inclined to agree with “location location location” as the priority - as long as it doesn’t overstretch you financially to the point you can’t enjoy anything as too great a proportion of your salary is paying the mortgage.

We bought in a cheaper / less desire-able area as first time buyers nearly 5 years ago and are still stuck here for the moment with a few life decisions in limbo. Cars racing around, people arguing in the street, sirens, occasionally stabbings, not feeling safe walking back from the station after dark. No real sense of community, no local coffee shop or decent pub within walking distance. In the better areas we rented in we enjoyed ‘life’ much more, but now we are on the property ladder. In retrospect I wish we’d saved more and/or bought smaller in a better area.

@Lojoh if it sounds too good to be true it usually is

Depends why the area is cheap. Is it just 'undiscovered' are does it have large social problems? If the latter, wouldn't it send your insurance premiums up and generally detract from your quality of life?

I grew up in a 'cheap' /rough area and saw lots of things i wish i hadn't. We got burgled a lot, couldn't play out, there were syringes in the playground, our cats kept getting killed or going missing.

I live in a house that literally 10-15 minutes drive away would be double the price. I live on one of the better streets in a bad area. People frown and say ‘oh god’ when they talk about the area that I live in, it’s an area people would say they ‘wouldn’t want to raise kids in’ but really as long as there isn’t extreme crime I don’t see the problem. Nobody gets stabbed or attacked, there’s some break-ins but that can happen anywhere. Yes people here have ‘common’ accents (me included!) and dress in a way that judgemental people would refer to as ‘chavvy’ but that would never put me off living in a far cheaper area.

'Everybodies biggest expense is the roof over their heads.'

The voice of someone who doesn't have children in daycare, I suspect!

I used to spend 25k a year on rent in London and moved to Kent. I lived in pretty much a mansion by a train station in bumble town. A drug dealer lived across the road selling smack. We didn't stay there long.

It depends what you are willing to put up with and live without. I wouldn't anywhere ever on a gamble the area would improve - it might but whilst it takes its time to get better I would rather enjoy my life.

It really depends on what's important to you, but I personally think location is the most important thing when it comes to buying. Plus you can save up for the nice things in life that you've mentioned, but it's much harder to relocate.

Our local "nice area" is a pre-war estate, and we could have afforded a small 4-bed semi. That would have been the choice had we been planning to move again in a couple of years - a guaranteed easy sale. But we knew we had no intention of moving again, so for the same money we went for a large 5 bed Victorian house with large garden in an area of mainly 3 bed modern houses and smaller terraces. So nowhere as "desirable" an area, but with the same level of safety and good schools, and better transport and proximity to services, than the "nice area". It doesn't have to be a choice between "nice" and "rough".

I live in a cheap rough area, and there isn't a secret, its just luck. There have been multiple stabbings and shooting in the area an it has a terrible reputation. We frequently see armed police.
My street has a friendly community feel, we all know each other by name and people look out for each other; two streets along and you wouldn't want to walk to the corner shop after dark.

When you think you have found a nice place, look at the local papers, drive around for a few nights in the school holidays. Buy something from the corner shop. If you don't feel safe then walk away.

We tripled the size of our home and reduced our mortgage and only looked 3 streets past our preferred area.

Ok, so the street isn't as pretty. But it's exactly the same style of street as what we could get within our preferred area so on paper the product is the same.

But as it was cheaper we could go bigger.

We bought our first house just out of our preferred postcode and only a few minutes from all our friends and family who live in the naice postcode. It was horrible, honestly. Shabby- looking place with gangs, graffiti etc We made a lot of money on the house in only two years though, then sold up and bought a house where we originally wanted one. I wouldn’t move back there even to a palace!its lovely here, we feel very safe and there are cafes, pubs and nice shops on our doorstep.

1. Don't take other people's nice lifestyles at face value. They may well be funded by debt. Or inheritance. Or generous relatives.

2. There's unfashionable and there's bad. Really careful research is needed to distinguish between the two. Who might your neighbours be? Nice reliable types who you'd trust to take in parcels and deal with you considerately concerning building work and parking issues? Or late-partying, possibly drug-dealing, chaotic, self-absorbed types, who you'd end up desperate to move away from? Do your neighbours own or rent their houses? Whole house or HMO? Owners are likely to stay longer. Renters come and go and you never know who's coming next.

3. Look at selling price trends over the past few decades. Is the gap between neighbourhoods widening, in relative or real terms? Or staying the same? In which terms? If you don't buy in the nice neighbourhood as soon as you can afford to, will you ever be able to move back there?

4. Particularly, look at what happens when the market drops e.g. in 2008. Nice, family neighbourhoods, where people are buying their 2nd or 3rd house tend to hold their value. Those full of rented and first-time buyer properties plummet and can take a really long time to regain value. Look at what that does to relative prices over time.

Me and DP live in a "non trendy" area on the edge of our city. But we did our research: crime rates are fine, transport links are pretty good and theres shops etc. nearby. What there isn't is trendy bars, many restaurants etc. but since we go into the city centre all the time anyway that wasnt an issue for us. I kinda like how its quieter here plus our house was probably about 100k cheaper than it could have been. We went for small terrace too but then I dont like to worry about money and I dont see the point of having a bigger house for no reason. So I suppose it depends what's important to you.

The dilemma of secondary schools and moving to a quieter area has taken hold, the plan is to move from east London to Hertfordshire …..anyone else done it recently? we are looking at hoddesdon any links to groups for parents would be great. ive had a look on FB but it seems to be advertising or photo forums

Cloudyyy, how did ou manage to make a lot of money in just 2yrs - the area is so rough, who would want to buy there and pay a lot more than you have? Or was it a wreck and you are great at renovating by DIY?

Also I agree with the poster above regarding there being a difference between unfashionable and bad: I'd say we're unfashionable