So what areas ARE decent and affordable?

[NewTownDweller51]

So moving down from Edinburgh to Cambridge is a SHOCK as prices are so expensive. Can anyone kindly recommend areas? I want to live in Earl Street/Clarendon Street but nothing ever comes up and they'd be too expensive anyway.

So where to buy? Any areas to absolutely avoid (ie. where you might get mugged walking back home at night?)

Any info would be greatly devoured! Thanks!

You'd be unlucky to get mugged anywhere in Cambridge, it is very safe. Key questions are: what's your budget, what size house, what kind of facilities do you want to hand, what schooling arrangements do you have in mind, where will you/partner be working, how are you envisaging getting around the place?

If you are prepared to look at a village, there are plenty of affordable ones which are not too far from town. There are also plenty of unaffordable ones, too! This is an overheated housing market, brace yourself...

Cheapest areas are outer city - ie Arbury/ Kings Hedges (often described as North Chesterton), Trumpington, Ditton Fields or towards Cherry Hinton. These areas have a lot of ex council housing which is cheaper and quite spacious. They're cycleable into the city which is a big bonus in Cambridge as the traffic is awful and bus service really rubbish. They're not rough areas in terms of getting mugged or anything, though they are boring with nothing like the atmosphere and facilities of central Cambridge.

Thanks! Ah, budget....it depends. Wouldn't want to put more than £750 000 in this heated market. Preferably a lot less.
I do want to walk into town (not cycle or drive). Can manage with 3 bed house. Do NOT want outlying villages. Boys at Leys and Hills Road so want them to walk to school.
Maybe a road off Hills Road? Or somewhere just north or Jesus Green? Surely there are buses to Hills Road? No?
I'd love a little townhouse on or around Earl Street/Clarendon Street...

Roads off Hills Road are expensive (eg. Marshall Road, Blinco Grove etc) because of proximity to Addenbrookes and to town centre.

Trumpington is walkable/cyclable to both The Lets and Hills Rd 6th Form College.

Here is a Marshall Road house for £800k
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47254122.html

Here is one for £750k on Hills Avenue
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-65340005.html

Be prepared for these to go at or above asking price.

Thanks HereIAm20 - that's nuts. Marshall Road £525 000 only a year and half ago, Hills Avenue £575 000 in 2015.
This is why we might rent for a few years and wait for interest rates to come up and house prices to come down a bit....
Does anyone have any advice about renting? I think I might start a new thread!

Why do you specifically want them to walk to school? And how fast do they walk?

Huge house here:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-64067087.html

and one here on Perne Road
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-65104817.html

Or you can't get much closer to Hills than Cherry Hinton Road:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47456781.html

and indeed Blinco Grove, provided you really don't mind squeezing your car past the double-parked ones either side:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-64148195.html

Might be drooling slightly here!

Walking's good! It's what we're used to...

All those properties - thanks! - look very overpriced to my Northern eye....

How long would it take, in reality, to walk from Blinco Grove into town,
do you think?

It would take about 40-45 minutes to walk from Blinco Grove into town. Very short walk to Hills Road, and maybe 25 minutes to the Leys. Yes prices in Cambridge have shot up lately so you might well be better renting for a bit first. You'd get a better sense of where you like too. There's lots of new housing (mostly flats i think) being built at the moment between Hills Road and Trumpington if you like new houses. The roads between Cheery Hinton Road and Mill Road are a bit cheaper than those off Hills Road, and also walkable to the places you mention.

They're massively overpriced, but sadly it's what you pay for walking distance into town.

It's about 35 minutes, I'd say. Probably quicker to live out and catch the bus. DS used to dash into town from Hills Rd and be late back after lunch, and he's quite nippy.

I seriously don't see the prices actually dropping though. I'll try to find some figures for rises over 10 years.

With Astrazenica moving into Addenbrookes, I'd be amazed if house prices in the Hills Rd area fall any time soon. The regeneration of the King's Cross area has also inflated house prices in the area. People have been saying prices have got to crash in Cambridge for the last 20 years and it hasn't happened yet. My view is that house prices will remain insane in Cambridge as long as people are stuck for hours in traffic jams as they try to commute into Cambridge.

Why walking though? The boys will be very out of step with their peers who will mostly be cycling to school or into town to do things, etc. Even if you do live close enough to walk, there's a good chance they'll want to cycle anyway some of the time, so that they can go out afterwards. Teenagers here are very independent with their bikes.

Way back when I went to school in Cambridge everyone cycled in who lived nearby. Might expand the search a bit!
It is expensive! I live in south east London and couldn't afford an equivalent house there!!!

Having lived here since 1996 it seems pretty immune to price fluctuations
At the lowest points the market seems to hold rather than actually drop.

Backing what everyone else says about Cambridge market slowing, rather than falling ever. About 10 years ago friends of ours rented thinking prices were crazy, couldn't rise any more, were going to fall, and they never did. Cue losing out of 3 years of value gains.

Don't rent, you'll waste so much money if you can actually afford to buy... Lots of perfectly nice areas are walkable. I love my part of town and it's a 20 minute walk to town but much, much quicker by bike. Yoru boys won't want to walk if all their schoolfriends are cycling. What sort of house do you want? How many beds?

So this, for example, is a nice house in an OK area. It's not the poshest but it's convenient for town.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-58504831.html

Or if you want Leys/Hills Rd area you will have to pay more because they're nearer the station/hospital/private schools. But Marshall Road has a house for £800K
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47254122.html

This is near town and a really good location if you don't mind a fairly busy road. Has a separate annexe you could rent out!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-58198918.html

Thanks folks. I find the 'cheaper' (I used that word tongue in cheek) properties very bad value (to what I'm used to). I may have to up my price.

I take your point about renting....I'm worried about a house price crash but who can predict the future? As in the stockmarket, what happened in the past is no predictor of the future...

Anyone in finance who can predict the future of the Cambridge property market? Please advise!

Cycling...I can't (almost blind), eldest son can't (very uncoordinated - can't get him on a bike), husband won't (had a serious bike accident years back.) Actually, the whole cycling thing scares me and I hated almost being run over constantly by cyclists when I was last in the city. But please don't flame for this view! What am I even doing considering Cambridge? Just Hills Road 6th from - it's just right for my eldest (for a variety of reasons.)
Thanks again!!

We are currently also looking and agree it's a)very expensive, but also I'm sorry to say b)don't think it's going to get cheaper anytime soon!
However we left London last year so are used to crazy prices!

So if you can buy, please do so. I think renting and hoping for prices to drop would be a mistake, but of course that's just my opinion.

Have you look at Trumpington? there is a lot of new build there, and there is a guided busway, which means it's a lot faster and more reliable than a normal bus (as it has it's own lane and no traffic, at least as far as the railway station).

Thanks Maria 1982, I shall have to look at Trumpington - going down next week to look at houses to get a feel for property.

Definitely have a look. We have found that there's no point spending too much time looking online. Beyond a preliminary assessment, it's really better to go see them in the flesh! Realise this may be hard if you're not living here yet.

Coming down next week and plan to look at several houses!

I live in trumpington and attended Hills Road Sixth in the last 5 years and have children of my own so fairly well placed to answer any questions you might have ! Feel free to pm me :)