Where to move for the lifestyle we desperate want

[MomRose12]

Hi all,
I am looking for some suggestions re best place to move to.

Background: DH and I work in Banking-IT. We live in a leafy London suburb. I've been struggling with managing work and home ever since we had our twins. My main problem seems to be the commute. 1.5 hours each way. Also, our 3 bed house has become tight for us now. We don't want to take on a large mortgage for a bigger house though.

Where in the UK can offer us a decent 4 bed detached home (under £500k), safe area, good schools and within 30 min drive of a town/city with banking/IT jobs? Is Leeds a good option?

Haven't read the whole thread but just wanted to say that I relocated from London to Leeds a few years ago to start our family. BEST decision I ever made. You'll easily get a 4 bed in a naice area in that budget.

Omg! Thank you so much everyone. Lots of analysis work for the weekend!

We don’t have family in UK. So we can move abroad too. So far I’ve heard Belfast, Dublin and Luxembourg on this thread. Thank you.

Please keep your inputs coming. Thanks again for taking time out to help us.

North Leeds.

You are going to laugh but take a look at Amazon, google and Thompson Reuters here in NYC. You can live close by in places like Astoria, downtown Jersey City, Hoboken or Park Slope and have a very short commute. Highly paid, short commute of 30min max, good public schools and affordable housing (for now anyway).

I do still ask the question of what it is you are struggling with because I found that at 3 it's the peak in terms of junk you trip over, childcare stress and it's when lots of spouses start working late to avoid the chaos, putting more pressure and stress on one parent, normally the mother. Moving won't fix that. Also, a bigger home is more work to maintain. Think carefully about those lovely bigger homes with 'a nice garden'. Is your OH really going to do the gardening or is it going to be another thing that falls on your shoulders to do or sort out a gardener to do?

Move to North Wales in Mold/Hawarden area with employment in Chester? M&S has a financial division there.

I know someone in IT he has to be in Manchester 3 days a week so commutes. The other days works from home. The family from spending weekends in N Wales, moved there. I would be looking on Rightmove at houses in your price bracket.

You then need to start a thread on place to live, schools etc. cachment areas. I have seen these do well on here.

Bristol your budget would be pushed. Cardiff is lovely

I think that uprooting from London suburbs to Mold in the hope of getting a job at M&SFS is not a very good idea. Nothing against Mold - lovely little town with lots going for it.
The other side of Chester would be better as you would be within commuting distance of Manchester and Liverpool, and other places in the area.

I feel I should qualify, regarding Luxembourg, property is actually very very expensive, not dissimilar to London, BUT salaries and benefits are generally much better and do well at at keeping up with prices if that makes sense. So you will undoubtedly have to spend more than 500k if you want to buy, but you will also probably be able to do that on a single salary with a good mortgage rate (ours is 1.5% for a 25 year fix). It’s a strong housing market and both IT and banking sectors are huge here.

I would have thought that you would get the job first, then find the place to live.

True there is more employment flexibility if you live in Cheshire, but in places like Frodsham and Helsby, you don't get as much property for your money as on the Welsh side.

We've bought in Leeds (near the beautiful and vast Roundhay Park) and we love it.
4 bed detached, was £350k a few years back, your budget would give a lot of options round here today.
Lots of leisure options too - live music, theatre and ballet, vibrant main central city area with beautiful arcades plus lots of period architecture and a selection of parks.

Lingua Same applies to the NYC area although housing is cheaper than London with a 30min commute. NYC public schools are very good in most areas, especially in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Westchester towns have excellent schools too. Absolutely zero need to go private. Actually the private schools are inferior to the public schools IMO as teachers aren't qualified, as well paid and most of the DC attending come from out of the district.

There are some great places in Lancashire, easily commutable to Manchester where you’ll find good jobs.
There was a thread recently about it. For 500k you’d get a fabulous home, outstanding state schools, good transport links and gorgeous countryside.
Two hours to London, two hours to Edinburgh by train.

Leeds has huge offices for Barclays and HSBC and the city centre I'm sure has hundreds of suitable companies. I live in Leeds and love it, all the trappings or city life but cheap and you are on the doorstep of some amazing countryside.

The Leeds crew is strong here I absolutely love living here - best decision ever.

There are loads of well paid Banking/IT jobs in Glasgow and soon to be more when Barclays expand.

Commutes are not long and quality of life is good here.

@Want2bSupermum the USA offers wonderful opportunities but the pressures are different. We just returned after 18 years as teaching my children how to take cover from a shooter broke me. I was tired of living in conservative Atlanta. We're also finding the UK a much cheaper place to live this days but miss the restaurants and tip service!

Yeah I couldn't live in Atlanta. I'm in North Jersey and it's a happy medium of conservatism and capitalism. There are deprived areas close to us but they are well funded.

Friends live in Piermont NY and commute. A quiet little place, no idea what education is like though.

There is a British estate agent in NYC. She is the CEO so might be worth chatting to if you fancy crossing the pond.

www.globalpropertysystems.com/about-gps/

Most suburbs of Glasgow are within 30-45mins drive and IT sector is booming up here.

OP is looking for a better work life balance and I doubt NYC will offer that with average of 2 weeks vacation a year. The corporate grind is much tougher in the USA than Europe and the UK.

Ps Barclays U.K. headquarters will open in Glasgow next year.

Umm I get 4 weeks of vacation, fully paid medical and all federal holidays off. DH gets 5 weeks vacation, fully paid medical and most federal holidays off. Right now I get a $ for $ match on my pension contribution. DH gets 20% gross wage contribution from his employer with a cap of the IRS limit ($56k a year).

Most professionals, such as those working in IT, get good benefits and well paid here, affording a much higher standard of living compared to the UK.