To move up north for a big but cheap house!

[dancingmonkey]

Just that really. I l live in Hertfordshire- south east and very expensive part of Uk. Budget is around £270,000 and around here that will get me a small 2 bed/ poss 3 bed. But have looked at properties in York which I know is lovely and the will get me a 4/5 bed with massive garden, playroom, utility etc!

Has anyone on here moved far from friends and family to get more value for money on a house? did you regret? I have a 2 year old so obviously it would be hard to not see grandparents and friends but other that that not sure what I would miss! I also work from home so wouldn't need to worry about that.

Has anyone on here moved far from friends and family to get more value for money on a house?

I could never swap loved friends and family for a house I must say, wouldn't matter where it was.

14:21EwwSprouts

but do seriously consider that fact that the weather is significantly colder and wetter

What a load of tosh! I do wish people would fact check.
Hereford annual rainfall 734mm, av temp 49.3F
Driffield annual rainfall 719mm, av temp 49.2F

You might want to do your research/fact checking properly too, Hereford is in Herefordshire which is at least 3 hours West of Hertfordshire and considerably wetter. You only have to look at the weather pretty much any week in the year to see how much more rain there is in the West Country and Up North. It would be a huge factor in any decision for me. The SE is by far the driest, sunniest area of the UK to live.

It's not rain that would put me off, but earlier darkness in winter. I studied at a northern university and remember dark January afternoons.

ha im from Driffield. You may not know what you're getting into there....

Allheyoungups you might want to do your research/fact checking properly too You might want to read read on before going off - same page:

EwwSprouts Wed 08-Jul-20 14:27:07
Oops mea culpa
Hertford av temp 50.4F

EwwSprouts fair play. It still rains a hell of a lot more in both places than it does in Hertfordshire though 😝

That seems like an unusually cheap house for Skerne. Skerne is a small village in East Yorkshire, near Driffield and Beverley. There are no trains and probably no buses. Your children would go to Hutton Cranswick School then onto Driffiels School. They wouldn't be picked on for being posh. You would find a 4 bed for your budget actually in Driffield. Driffield is a lovely but small and quiet market town on the wolds.

Our mate was from Skerne but he always came to driffield schools from 3 years old. its a strange Hamlet we forget exists even in driffield, although its very close. No Buses no train.

Driffield can be a bit of a drunken, drug fuelled madhouse.

Look into the driffield porno burger van scandal to get a real flavour of the place.

York is lovely but pretty expensive I'd be amazed you could get a house that big for that price there. Driffield isn't York, I'd love to live in York (an hour ish away from me) but too expensive for me . Only you could know whether being hat far away from family would work

Clearly the Op has chosen York as a “nice” area rather than as living the dream. She has repeated a few times she us open to moving anywhere in order to get more space.

“an acquired taste” means just that. Lots about moving out of the SE will be very different; weather, look of the houses, transport, topography of the area, even the water.
As for house prices the grotty city of Southampton probably is the closest match to Liverpool. Just look at house prices from low to high on Rightmove. A flat in Liverpool is the same price as a bloody garage in Southampton. I know there are lovely expensive houses up North probably worth the money too. The difference is, everything down south is overpriced.

Take a good look at your lifestyle and what you realistically want. A dream of ours has been a house in a rural area but realistically our children benefit from being close to schools and as they are teenage I need to consider future jobs. Friends of ours live in a rural area, the biggest downside to them is having to plan food and get it delivered, and having to go miles in the car if they forget or run out of something. Factor in things like travel time and costs - you may be miles from schools and likewise from where you children will socialise. But if those things aren’t an issue, go for it. We decided to go for a house which is on the outskirts of a town instead, our friends love their lifestyle equally

What an ignorant, goading and deluded message to send. I have lived in Yorkshire all my life. Having grown up in Harrogate, worked in York and now living in Leeds, I can tell you that this part of the world is easily £450k and upwards for a basic four bed. We don’t ignore people like you here anyway. Please, for the sake of all northerners, stay where you are

*Don’t want people that should say

I moved up North OP years ago, from London, and absolutely love it up here. I still visit London occasionally as I have family there, but always happy to come home. London isn’t remotely like it used to be, and is beyond recognition now as to how it was in ‘the old days’. I would never go back to living there.

@Leflic, it’s definitely true that the cheaper parts of the North are far cheaper than the cheaper parts of the South. But we still definitely got more for our money when we moved down here to Sussex than we got in Cheshire. We were in Wilmslow but even bits of Stockport were far more expensive than I expected. Places like Bramhall and Heaton Mersey. I had always thought of Stockport as a cheap Northern town so it was quite an eye opener to realise that in most of S Manchester area we couldn’t get much at all in a good school catchment for our 600k budget. Here we got a nice period 4 bed with a large garden for that.

We did exactly what you are thinking two years ago

Sold our 4 bed semi in Surrey for £515,000 and bought a 4 bed detached in Cheshire for £320,000 and now we are mortgage free

Lucky we both work from home so no issues there with work and life here is far better than down South

York is a lot further north, I’m unsure of your family ties, etc.... but I don’t think I’d want to live any further north than we do as three hours to get back to family is enough

Whatever you do, good luck, best thing we ever did and no regrets at all

I’m in a city in the North East and your budget would get a bigger house in the less desirable areas be cautious and check out schools etc. £270k would only get you a starter home in North East city

My cousin sold her flat in Kentish Town (nice big flat) & bought a gorgeous 4 bed house in York. Her 1st anniversary move was last week.
I’m live fairly close to you by the sounds of things.
I’m also half tempted to follow my cousin to York.
Her Facebook is full of wonderful places she’s discovering . ( inside the walls there are more than enough pubs for a different one every day so I’m told) .
She’s loving life since moving there. Hasn’t looked back once.

York is one of the most sought after places to live in the country. Absolutely gorgeous surrounding countryside and villages too. The city has so much going on there, I would move there tomorrow.

I’ve not rtft, but would you still be earning the same wage if you moved?

Neednewwellies I think you did well then if you are happy with the area. How much has your current property gone up in value compared to the one you sold? I think that’s a good indicator of desirability.

Also, my husband moved up here (Yorkshire but not York) from Essex then Hertfordshire and says he’d never go back.

is Kentish town a town in Kent?

It's worth living in York for Betty's tearooms.

Delicious!