Help with place to live!

[Dinkydoos]

My sister and husband and 3 kids age 3,5,7 are all relocating to uk from USA
They are used to a big city and would live to live central london but the prices are a bit off putting. Her DH will need to be in London couple times a week but only for meetings as self employed.
They were looking at Oxford but that is also v high priced
Tbh they have a very healthy budget but want a decent size 4 bed for it. Good primaries essential!
All family in north / Midlands so ideally north or west side off london would work.
Anyone any clues where would be good? Or areas of Oxford that may work?
Looked at Amersham but worrying that will seem a bit quiet ( though looks lovely!)
I said I would consult the wise MN ers and see if you have any good ideas!

PleeeeeeSe!

What is their budget?

I'd guess about 1.3 mill. I know that seems a lot, but I know they don't want it to be wasted if you know what I mean. Eg paying to be next to commutable station when actually don't need to commute daily
Thanks

Do they need it to be detached? huge difference in price in London depending on this.

If ok with teerraced, I'd recommend North london like Crouch End/Musewll Hill/Alexandra Palace, parts of Highgate may be still affordable if it's a terrace and not right by the High street (and maybe not the best house architecturally) - it's great there with the kids and feels quiet /suburban but so close to lively high streets and between 30-50min to central London. Also many big parks around.

£1.3 million will buy a decent family home in most areas of London (but not the really honeypot areas such as Hampstead/Notting Hill etc). It will buy a lovely house in Oxford - I'm slightly puzzled about why they are struggling on that budget unless they are comparing UK house sizes with US ones - obviously they are much smaller here, off-road parking is unusual in many cities that developed during the 19th century etc.

Have they thought about basing themselves in the north? The train from central/south Manchester to Euston is 2 hours. They could get something spectacular for that money up here!

Thanks for the help!
It's not that they are particularly struggling with budget it's more a case of narrowing down some options as they haven't lived in uk for long time and just need bit of advice re decent areas with good state schools. Will just give them more of a starting point.
Crouch end seems good actually. And I have been. Looking up north Oxford, would quite fancy that myself ??

Oxford is nice-looking of course, but so so congested in the central areas (places to eat, high street, getting tickets to theatre etc) and the traffic around the centre - all due to being a small city full of tourists and students. Oh and trains to London are BAD in rush hour. Often disrupted too - much worse than trains and tube within london.
I think to live in Oxford you must work locally. Or go for a nearby village - some have trains direct to london but not hugely frequent.

btw Crouch End is quite densely populated even though still relatively quiet in the side streets. Alexandra Palace is nicer if they like more space/quiet and more leafiness - and the train station there is good to the City. Does depend where they will work. The Palace oitself has a lot of events on so it's not boring and busier area as very near. But if they like more buzz and more people then C.End better - it's mainly terraces I think. In the US they think a 'house' is only a detached one, they have different names for anything else.

'and busier areas are very near', I mean.