Where should we move to in North London

[ParsleyTheLion1]

We are renting on the Archway road side of Highgate at the moment (because it's close to my mum and where I grew up so I know and like the area). We're looking to buy a house but are priced out of Highgate (obviously) and, to our dismay, Crouch End/East Finchley and Muswell Hill too. So now we're looking further north, to areas I don't really know well at all. Like Totteridge & Whetstone, Woodside Park, Barnet, Southgate.
But I'm a bit nervous of moving there, afraid that there isn't the same "community" feel, that I will feel isolated in suburbia (with a 14 month old) etc. Please can people let me know their experiences of these areas and what I might expect? Thanks

It really depends on how much you have to spend and how much space you need. Golders Green and Hampstead are lovely but you'll get more for your money around Brent Cross tube station.

What is your budget?

I live in East Finchley but am in and around High Barnet and east Barnet a fair bit.
Whetstone, Totteridge etc are all lovely areas. And not as far away as you think.

All have good bus routes and access to the city, just a few minutes further away then here.

FWIW I completely get your post. We need a bigger property but I don't want to leave east Finchley. I fucking love it here

Top top top £1.2m provided no works needed

Whetstone has loads of families that have been out priced from the likes of East Finchley and Muswell Hill- us included!
I think its got some great parks-friary, swan lane and some good family cafes and restaurants. Also loads of playgroups and kids groups- I have made lots of good friends here . Good transport links with both Totteridge and Whetstone and Arnos Grove tube stations and Oakleigh Park over ground in the area.
I always found Muswell Hill really overpriced considering the public transport is rubbish and East Finchley has only just started to tart itself up- parking's a complete nightmare around there.
Look into the schools as well-everywhere in London has a lot of pressure on both state primary and secondary schools-there are several threads on here about Crouch End and the nightmare to get a primary place. I know that's probably the last thing on your mind but it comes around very quickly! Whetstone has several good primaries as does North Finchley/ Woodside Park.

You'd get a fab house right on green belt here in Woodside Park for that budget.

Stroud Green/Finsbury park? £1m gets you this: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52767841.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-53087881.html

You could come to the 'other' side of the tracks to Crouch End...
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40015512.html

Seriously - the Harringay Ladder (as it's known) has good links to the City on the Overground. Good links to the tube system from Manor House or Turnpike Lane. Good and improving primary schools. Lots of access to green spaces within a short walk. It's a 20 minute walk to Crouch End.

It's an up and coming gentrifying area (measured by the bugaboo quotient!)

Victorian houses on my road (near priory park, crouch end) are about £1.1m...are you sure you can't afford it?

Woodside Park is really nice, as is Totteridge. Very villagey. I also like New Southgate/Friern Barnet. Enfield is a much cheaper borough so even going a road across the border makes a big difference.

North Finchley (Woodside Park tube) is a snippet cheaper than East Finch and has a decent (grotty, but pretty buzzy) high street and increasingly a strong community feel. Nice park (Friary) and good primary and secondary schools options. I moved there from Stoke Newington a few years ago and have grown to really like it. Need to be near the high street and not too far from the tube, though, so look at roads carefully. Some bits of North Finch are far from the tube and grotty. Primary and secondary schools are good. 1.2 mil would get you a lovely 4 or 5 bed semi with good sized garden on a nice road.

Whetsone is the next area north - has small, nice but fairly useless high street ( a few decent cafes and restaurants and a Waitrose, not a huge amount else) and feels more suburban. Roughly same prices.

Southgate has a busy, buzzy feel around the high street but I'd say it feels very suburban once you get on the residential streets, although. Outside of 'Southgate village' (pricey) house prices are cheaper than Finchley. Your money would go further.

North Finchley and surrounds are full of ex-Crouch/Muswell/Camden/Stokie type families

This place www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52763074.html looks pretty amazing -- and a good chance of being in the Eleanor Palmer catchment area. Sure you can't afford to buy in Tufnell Park? I love it here and would not exchange it for surburbia even if it meant owning a property twice the size. There is a vibrant community here, lots of good schools and it's Zone 2 with a tube station nearby.

That's a decent budget for the areas you list. In order, I'd say Totteridge (green belt literally on your doorstep and very quaint), Whetstone (wonderful restaurants on the high street), East Finchley (close to M Hill) , N Finchley (buzzy), Finchley Central (cosmopolitan). Basically you can't go wrong in any of them!

If you need schools, the Jewish schools are fab, and others like Moss Hall and Martins are good too.

Thanks folks.
We did look at a house on College Lane in Kentish Town recently but, however much I would dearly love to live near a lido (when I was single I actually moved to Hackney just for London Fields lido), it was just too small and I had to accept that, albeit grudgingly.
swquestion - the problem is that all the houses we've seen in Crouch End/near Priory Park do in fact need a fair bit of work (or would do so quite soon). The images online often manage to make a place seem waaaaaay nicer done up than it really is.

swquestion - that 2 bed does look really nice, but we need, ideally, 3 beds. And a lot bigger "living space". My DH is not really a very hands on dad (he's 55 and it's his first child....it's taking him a long time to get used to the upheaval), so we need enough space for daytime living that is largely a child-free zone. Ideally we'd have a fairly big kitchen diner where I can potter and DS can play under my supervision, and a separate living room.

I think 1.2 would still get you something in ce/mh - what's wrong with needing work too? Sounds ideal over time, add value etc.
Depends how much space you think you need. Can still get 3/4 bed for that?

If its space you want, look at Barnet

We are locked into tenancy at the moment for another few months so if work needed would be good to do it while we have somewhere else to live.
Also, if house is shabby/very dated/a bit scuzzy we'd rather do the work before we move in so that we can live in nicer place.
£1.2m won't get us the size of house we want in the condition we'd like in the MH/CE/EF area.
If we got a house for, say, £850k/£950k that needed work that would be ok. But no way we'd get size of house for that price in those areas.

Anyone with any thoughts on what Palmers Green is like?

Did you see my Woodside Park house up thread?

I did PseudoBadger. Thank you. We've arranged to go and see it.

I live in Southgate, quite close to Palmers Green. You'd get a fantastic house here for £1.2m. Winchmore Hill is also lovely. In Southgate there are beautiful Edwardian houses, a lovely estate of Arts and Crafts houses and lots of 1930s housing too. It's a bit suburban, but lots of big parks, decent coffee shops and cafes and good primary and secondary schools (although some of the catchments are quite small). Well worth checking out .

How about this one in Kentish Town?
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57723263.html

It's nice but from looks of it living space is quite small (as in, just one area where people can 'hang out' or play (in the case of DS)). Kitchen doesn't really have any 'living' or playing space....