Where can we live - moving out of London

[StillTryingHard]

Wasn't sure whether to post here or on AIBU. it does seem IABU to find somewhere matching my criteria. Basically due to being rubbish at life choices, finances, being a proper grown up etc I find myself with DH & DS9 renting in london & never have got on property ladder. Now have reasonably good job and deposit saved and can afford up to £250,000 house. Enough to buy a driveway in london. But right move is unfathomable. So where can I move that has good free secondary schools & is near-ish to an overground so I can still get into london for meetings (expecting to WFH as much as possible). And I would like to live in an okay area. Would consider jacking it all in and living/commuting from abroad. What would you do? Where would you go? I believe in MNetters to shed light where right move cannot!

What are your requirements regarding bedroom number/house or flat/garden/journey time from London etc?

Northampton?

Milton Keynes?

There is a good websit that shows commuter times and prices along all the train lines into London.

www.commutefrom.com/

What about further north? Sheffield has good links to London.

Reading?! I live here and it's got really good transport links, the town is great, everything you need there.

Rugby

Hit enter too soon,
Virgin into Euston is 48 min
London midland into Euston 55 min
Prices different for both companies

Plenty of good schools and nice areas
It's a rural development zone so currently building quite a lot in nice areas

Eg this
Sheepcote Drive, Long Lawford, Rugby
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68042735.html

Some bargains to be had round your price range in Chelmsford Essex. If you are prepared to do some work.

Where in London do you need to get into?

How many meetings a week do you think you'll need to do? We live in South Worcestershire, there's a station with a direct line to London, the schools are good, but the only downside is that it takes 2 hours on the train. But you could buy a 3 bed house, the train fare is cheap for the distance (fast lines are twice the price), there will be a new station nearby in the next couple of years with a faster train service and its a great place to live.
DH spends a couple of days a week in London most weeks, and it's v convenient for Birmingham, Birminham airport and good motorway network

Rochester in Kent. Plenty of trains to London and reasonable house prices. Grammar school system. Easy to get to the coast/lovely countryside too. For all of the places suggested on the thread, check the train prices.

If Euston would work, I'd look at Birmingham and places along that line.

The HS2 extension will bring journey times down to under an hour. You might as well get a big jump on prices and try for somewhere where £250k will get you threes beds and a garden, IF you can put up with longer journey times for a few years.

Canterbury? Wye?

Grammar school systema - which may or not work for you.

Leicester. You can get quite a lot for 250,000 and is 1 hour to King's Cross. Not sure about schools because my daughter is just 2.5

Leicester is into st Pancras

We spent a LONG time investigating commutable, yet affordable areas (upwards of a year!) We've just bought in Folkestone after selling in the suburbs of London. We have ended up with a house we could only dream of, close to great schools, in a vibrant town that is having huge amounts of effort and money spent regenerating it with and only fifty minutes on the high speed to London.

I'd consider the Midlands too if you're not travelling to London every day - Grantham has a fast line and there are nice Places to live around it, (Grantham itself is not that nice, but surrounding villages are) plus they have a very good grammar school. Southwell too as the Minster school is very good too

Bingham has a good senior school and all of west bridgford schools are good (house prices there are high though)

Chesham - still on the underground (metropolitan line) so you can commute if needed, grammar schools and good primaries (in case you fancy a second), lovely countryside, close enough to airports but still peaceful, good hospitals (wycombe), good pubs, free town events like live music in the park, donkey derby, beer festivals.

Houses c.250 sell quickly but come up regularly so worth watching.

It's hard for people to advise you without knowing which bit of London you need to get to, unless it varies. If you're near Paddington, I second Reading, but 250k won't get you a huge house.

It is massively expensive to get trains from the Midlands to London though.

I would say look at outer south east London and Kent... draw a line and keep on searching...

Season ticket with London midland £4K year