Location again - Surrey vs Essex

[Nix01]

Hi again,

The more I search on Rightmove, the more confused I become.

I loved the Guildford - Farnham area in Surrey and would love to live there, but looking at property there vs around Saffron Walden in Essex there is a huge variance of what you can get for around 500k.

Essentially, I'd like a 4 bedroom detached house with large garden. Commutable to Victoria Street and outstanding schools for my two young boys.

Does anyone have any recommendations for me?

Thank you

For me it would depend entirely on where I was travelling to - Liverpool Street I would go to Essex, Victoria, I would go to Surrey (though the Guildford line goes to Waterloo, I think Kent is best for Victoria?).

Wherever you move I would make sure you're very close (walking distance) to the station as adding a drive plus parking charges to an already long and expensive commute would be a real pain.

I would go for Saffron Walden - easy enough journey from Audley End to Tottenham Hale (less than 40 mins on fast train) then switch to Victoria line to Victoria.
The secondary schools in Saffron Walden and nearby (Newport Grammar) are both highly regarded. I'm not up to date with Primary schools but as of a couple of years ago they were mainly Ofsted Outstanding except one which was probably a 'good' but not as sought-after as the others.
There aren't many houses on the market at the moment though. A couple of houses in our village found buyers on the first day they were marketed recently (we are walking distance of station). The few that are left on market tend to less conventional lay-outs etc, so I guess you would need to make contact with the estate agents and pester each day to get access to the nice family homes as they come onto the market.