Nice part of a “rough” town or “rough” part of a “nice” town?

[Elsiebear90]

I know rough and nice are subjective, but if you had a small budget and could either live in a nice part of a town which has a bad reputation overall or in a bad area of a town which has a good reputation which would you choose? We went for the former, as it was more important that we had nice neighbours than being able to say we live in a “good” town, but people I work with have said they would have chose the latter.

When I say a “rough” part, I am talking an area of town with a high crime rate, very deprived, anti social behaviour, poorly maintained flats and houses etc, high unemployment etc, but the town overall has a very good reputation as it is mostly very affluent with nice restaurants, bars, shops etc.

Nice part of a rough town here...its worked really well for us as it's a lovely quiet place to live, and neighbours are all very civilized, its a new estate and I think a lot of people will have bought here as you get so much for your money...the same houses are selling for about 30% more in a development a few miles away, and 50% more in the naice village about 15 miles away. Not much in the way of nice cafes or restaurants locally, and people sometimes raise an eyebrow when I tell them the town I live in as it has quite a bad rep but it was def the right choice for us and weirdly it has way more lovely parks and open spaces than the previous place we lived, which would definitely be perceived as a much nicer area. We are about a mile away from to a notoriously rough area known for drug dealing and prostitution, but you would never know it if you came here. Pre-corona people were selling houses they'd only bought a couple of years previous for 20-30%ish profit so we feel it's been a good choice for that reason too.

The other thing that strikes me is you can improve your house but it's unlikely you can do much to improve the area or your neighbours

It’s very hard to know without context/place information. There is some snobbery about our city - it’s definitely not a destination city, and the centre is not beautiful. Most of my colleagues either live more rurally, or in one of the two (posh and very posh) market towns 10-15 miles away. We live in the nicest part of our city and it’s a little oasis of like-minded people and (pushy) parents as we have a good primary school. I always used to chuckle to myself when a colleague used to go on and on about how she lives in and couldn’t bear to live in . I visited her, she lived in a tiny workers’ cottage right on a main road and backing on to the local tip. She never came to our house but we live in leafy suburbia with good open space. We didn’t deliberately choose nice part of city over another location though, we chose to be close to work and were able to do that by living in a nice neighbourhood. One thing I do know though is that the nicer the house (bigger, better garden, nice neighbours etc), the easier it is to stay home, especially relevant in lockdown. And with small kids (if you have them) more space is good too.

I think it’s most important that you live where you want to live. Our house in would be well over £1m, something we couldn’t afford.

Nice part of the rough town. Your immediate neighbours will have the most effect on your daily life.

I have done both and say nice part of a rough town. Anti social behaviour is a nightmare and there is nothing worse than dreading coming home.

Definitely rough part of a nice area. The "rough"ness gets diluted by the majority.

The opposite happens with a nice area in a rough town - the "nice"ness gets diluted by the rough.

I think this differs so so much town to town that it's impossible to answer.

Some towns "nice" parts will surely be worse than others "rough" parts and vice versa.

Just move somewhere you think will work for you.

I've lived in both - I've also lived in two ex council properties in nicer towns. One I grew up in, it was fantastic. It was bigger than most modern housing in the area and not a listed stone cottage (other 2 options). It also had a huge garden. My parents still live there and a majority of properties are now private.

My first house was a similar type of property but in the North of England. The area was mainly council, but still nice. When we'd been there 3 years they decided to reallocate a load of houses and the area became very rough. Think sofas and broken toys in gardens and the streets. We were broken into once and had 15-20k worth of specialist equipment stolen by a know offender. The stuff was traced but in the nearest rough town where the police wouldn't even go. After a couple of further attempted breakins.

We moved.

It very much changed from slightly rough in appearance but nice and friendly to an area you wouldn't walk in alone.

Hmmm. That's the decision I had to make when I decided to sell and move. I couldn't afford to move to a less 'naice' area of the town I'd lived in for many years. So I moved to a reasonably nice part of a small town which borders on a small, not so nice part.

But I looked at the crime etc stats before I came and the rates are very low, it's a friendly area and the town is pretty, quirky, lots of local history, has lovely walks near the coastline.

I don't get the postcode snobbery thing. I've always gone on what my needs are and to what extent does a property meet them.

We live in a fairly nice area of a city that hasn't got a good reputation, at least around here. I think most cities suffer with the same sorts of crime up and down the country

For us though this means that like yesterday whenever we go out for the day we always without fail drive to one of the four lovely and very expensive towns nearby (within twenty miles)

We never, ever go in to our city centre. We don't like the people wandering around and the atmosphere isn't great. Therefore I guess it would be better to live in a bit so nice area of a nicer place

If the only option was a street with nightmare neighbour's then I'd absolutely stay put here and just continue to drive to the nice places every time

We are looking to downsize in the near future as that's the only way we can move to a nicer town and we're absolute prepared to do that, esp as an extension or loft conversion can be done fairly simply

I live in a rough part of a rough town so I'm probably not the best person to ask!

I think the reality is more important than the reputation though. Reputations can be based on events that happened years ago. Or on simple prejudice.

I'd take a walk around both areas during the day and the night to get a feel for the place.
Checking out the local shops and takeaways at evening time can give a good indication of the general level of anti social behaviour.
Also if kids are playing out: does it look like the Mums are keeping an eye on them or are they left to roam?
And of course talking to your potential neighbours. What do they think of the area?

"Rough" areas can vary greatly between one street and another. My block of maisonettes is a functional, if lively, community.
The High Flats, one street away, are not a place I would want to raise children.

That's an interesting question.

I think it depends how rough the town is or how rough that part of the town is really.

It's all about location, as they say, but there is definitely a balance to strike when talking about the practicalities of space etc.

We've slightly compromised on location for more space, but not in terms of it being "rough". It's a nice, but very quiet village and a bit further out from schools etc than I'd like, but we needed more space, so it's not our number one location, but it's nice with low crime rates. The most sought after town most people round here want to move to, actually has very high crime rates, but it's very pretty, with lots of amenities. Personally, I'd rather drive 10 minutes to get there from a bigger house, in a slightly sleepy village with one shop and one pub, and low crime rate, than the other way round.

I understand that's not exactly the question you asked OP but I guess it has to come down to what you value the most....

Community? Safety? Space? Potential future value?