Where would you choose to live out of these places?

[groovygreenwichgirl]

We need to move to buy a bigger place (just had baby and current flat and area is unsuitable).

We both work in London. DH works at Westminster and I am potentially going to be able to give up current job and work from home. We love London but would like to live somewhere family friendly with a good community feel. We also want to not move again for a while after in order to make this home for our ds and potential other dc.

DH doesn't want a commute longer than an hour door to door. We have also recently found out he could transfer to the same job (with same pay minus London weighting) in Sheffield.

Our budget is 475,000 and we are looking at 3 bed houses.

So our shortlist at the moment is:
Epping/Loughton/Buckhurst Hill
St Albans
Watford
Sheffield

I have never been to Sheffield. I know it would be cheaper but Is it a nice place to live?

Worked in Sheffield for 20 years. Many of the people I worked with lived in places like Dore and Totley, the Peak District villages like Hathersage, Grindleford or villages on the edge of Chesterfield like Wingerworth and Ashover. I loved living up there and only left to retire abroad. Sheffield is a great city and if you can give up London you can have a fab lifestyle there. It is much colder than London which is why,when I came back to the UK,I moved to the South West, which is also lovely.

I have lived in st Albans and Sheffield. St Albans is way nicer in my opinion but I could see that you could get tempted when you view houses given that you would get a great house in Sheffield. As stated places like totley and dore going out to the peak district are nice but I dont think Sheffield city centre is so great on the whole so would live in the villages around Sheffield or st Albans.

I live in St A and you can't get 3 beds for that money. A teeny 3 bed has just gone up near me for £640k. It's ridiculous. Move somewhere where you can get your money's worth. I'd move if we could.

I have lived (and bought houses!) in two out of your three places! .

St Albans - very nice. Very pricey. You can definitely get a three bed for that price though (or less actually). To get a three bed with a garden for that budget you are probably going to be a bit of a distance from the station, or relatively near the station but in a less nice bit (off camp road, off London road). Lovely market town stuffed to the rafters with ex Londoners who moved there to have a family and settle down, for all the same reasons you are considering it.

Watford - although when we bought there it was significantly cheaper than St Albans prices, the gap is now closing and you don't get masses and masses more for your money, and it's less nice than St Albans. But you are likely to get a fully modernised place in a decent street in Watford, and the same price house in St Albans probably needs a bit of work, or the street isn't so nice, or the garden is a bit pokey.

Watford does have several things to recommend it - very good shopping centre (with a John Lewis!), fab Cassiobury Park (Council currently renovating it with a lovely new cafe /community centre / big outdoor paddling pools), good connections to London, plenty of decent schools. More multicultural than St Albans, which might be important to you.

You can get from both to Westminster an hour door to door (if you live within about 10 mins of the station - I cycled as we couldn't afford a house within 10 mins walking distance). I know this because I worked in Westminster when living in both places!

Any other Qs about them, fire away.

Shizzy - that's just not true. I know someone who is currently house hunting in St Albans for a three bed, looking between about £380 to £460k and she has just viewed eight properties in St Albans within that range in the last week. Are you in the conservation area? Or on Fishpool St?!

I would absolutely move to Sheffield

You could get a nice 4 bed house in a nice area for your money

I don't know Sheffield particularly well but assume that like most cities it has nicer and not so nice areas but if you do your research I'm sure you will find an area that meets your needs

If you like the countryside then it is very easy to get out into some beautiful areas in the Peak District

Google price increases. If you move out of London you will never be able to move back. You will see your Northern house increase by small increments while the property you sold will have increased by 50%.

Also, you will never be able to sacrifice the space, benefits of lower population density and the ease of living where things are either there or they are not compared to having the whole of life on your doorstep but sometimes it's just too much like hard work to battle the crowds to make it there.

If you are ready to give up the feeling that live begins and ends with London then a move North is for you. Read Wife in the North, I moved North around the time that was written and cried at every page because it was all true, the good, the great and the tough bits.

Sheffield is gorgeous! Within minutes of the city centre you are out in the most stunning peak district countryside. There are two unis so it has a lovely buzz to it. And houses are cheap.

You could also look at areas that come into London via Vauxhall, as that's pretty near Westminster too, and gives you more choice than just the ones that commute into Victoria (if those ones do).

I'd have thought it could often take more than an hour to get from Epping, unless there's a fast train as well as the tube.

I work in Sheffield, but live just outside it. In the winter my commute is about 45 minutes (1 hour 45 minutes yesterday due to a crash on the M1).

In summer it takes me less than half an hour to drive the 16 miles to work.

That said Sheffield is very congested and if my workplace was near the station I would get a train to work. The supertrams are pretty good as well and there is a brilliant Vietnamese restaurant on London Road

Is Leeds an option? I prefer Leeds to Sheffield. It is more vibrant and sophisticated than Sheffield IMO.

Take a look on rightmove widgeon if you don't believe me - most of the 3 bed properties in that bracket are either outside of St Albans 'proper' in places like London Colney, need a fair bit of modernisation or are in rather dubious parts of St A.

I spent a couple of years in Sheffield 25 years ago and found it to be friendly and lively. I grew up in Edinburgh and I found the locals in Sheffield to be way less frosty than I was used to.

Also, you will never be able to sacrifice [ ] the ease of living where things are either there or they are not compared to having the whole of life on your doorstep but sometimes it's just too much like hard work to battle the crowds to make it there.

What a fantastic way of putting it anotherday. That really resonated with me.

I would just add a note of caution. Thinking of a government dept with a major presence in Sheffield, it wasn't that long ago when they gave up another large site and staff had the option of moving locations or being made redundant. If you move I would say you need to be confident you both have the education, skills and experience to gain good positions with other employers. The way property is going in London, if you give up your property it will be difficult / impossible to come back. If you want to try Sheffield I would say rent first.

Houses for less than £460k in St Albans:

here

another

more

here's another

and another

another house

how about this one

or this one

Shizzy - these were links already open on my computer because I've just spent the last week talking to my sister about all the houses she is going to view in St Albans! The OP didn't say whether she definitely wanted a beatutifully done up place in the nicest areas of St Albans. None of those are in London Colney or Sandridge (where you do get more for your money). Not all of these are in a dire state.

And personally I think that the "bad areas" in St Albans aren't actually awful awful. But there are definitely options if you have £475k for a three bed. Some people prefer to live in St Albans proper even if that means sacrificing the area, or size of house, or having to replace the kitchen. But not all of those properties are in horrible areas and unmodernised.

Sheffield out of those options. But you wouldn't get me living in London for all the money in the world. I'd head to one of the Peak District villages but I like quiet.

Sheffield in a heartbeat. I went to uni there and still live quite close.

The city is as nice as any city that size. Lots of stuff going on. Two unis. Amazing countryside.

Sorry -the second of those houses is £475, so not under £460. But still on the OP's budget, really nice inside, decent area.

Where do most of your friends and family live? I just couldn't up sticks and move hundreds of miles away from everyone I knew/cared about. Dh and I moved from London to Devon for work and hated it ... felt isolated and lonely. Came home to London as soon as we possibly could!

I come from the south originally and now live in Penistone (which has a Sheffield postcode but actually closer to Barnsley and is notorious for its snow!) It is beautiful up here and I love living here but also know we'd never afford to move down south.

Wow widgeon I've really rattled your cage. Looking at just a few of the links you've provided (sorry, don't have enough time to go through them all), why would someone buy one of these when they can get far more for their money elsewhere? Plus doesn't the OP's DH want a 1 hr commute? Have you heard about how bad the train service into London is?

But sorry for having an opinion. You obviously know far more about my home city than I do. Hope your friend finds the house of their dreams.

Epping is about 40 minutes on the tube to central London, Loughton and Buckhurst HILL about 10 minutes less. Epping is much nicer than Loughton but very much has a suburban feel compared to London. Houses v. pricy but not at St Albans levels. Also has lots of traffic if there are any problems on the M25 or M11.

We live in Penistone just north of Sheffield and absolutely love it. The house prices are very reasonable, we live in a 4 bed Edwardian semi about £200000. Also schools are good here , two ofsted outstanding primaries within a mile. Compared to SE job market is limited and wages are low unless you are in a niche occupation. We are close to m1 and can commute Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester.

Hi hs2. When I was growing up there was little migration if you were born here you stayed in Penistone but we have noticed especially in the last decade a lot of new arrivals , a good thing. Because it is such a great place to raise your little ones

I'm a little bit further North than Sheffield and if you are considering moving there I would suggest the Leeds side of Sheffield, largely because if you or DH need to look for jobs at any point you've got 2 large cities to go at.