How did you decide which area to live in?

[Mhschoolq]

We were fixed on an area and all set to move there, then had a couple of problems with properties etc. And now we’re overthinking it and unsure where to live.

I have no idea how to decide WHERE to live. DH says I totally overthink everything (a massive problem of mine), and we should just decide and pack our bags. But how?! I keep weighing stuff up and can’t reach any conclusions. It matters a lot because of kids etc.

How do you find an area that’s right and decide to move there?! I’m going mad overthinking it and wondering if the area is all wrong etc etc.

Did you find your perfect place and know it was right? Or choose based on practical reasons (commute, family nearby)?

We looked around before finding our perfect house.

We picked this location because of the secondary schools and the support available to him for his additional needs in primary school. It is also close, but far enough away, to the only set of driving grandparents who can help with school runs in an emergency.

Similar to above. We knew we wanted to be in a good secondary school catchment area. I wanted to be able to get to grandparents within about 20mins max driving. We wanted a more semi rural area. We needed good rail links into nearest city for work purposes. It all pretty much pointed to one ideal area for us!

I wanted somewhere with an enjoyable cycle to work (i.e. mainly on canals, through parks, along the Thames, quiet side streets etc rather than all busy major roads - because (outside of Covid times, at least) I think it’s important that I enjoy my commute.

I also wanted to be on a train or tube line which takes me directly or almost directly into Shoreditch, because again, outside of Covid, I socialise there a lot. Plus I wanted a couple of decent gastropubs in my local area.

So reasonably flexible and there could have been a lot of contenders - but I ended up where I am now because it’s the part of London I lived as a student almost 15 years ago, and I always liked the feel of the area. It’s the right mix of trendy, arty and slightly down at heel and isn’t the kind of obnoxious nappy valley neighbourhood which sets my teeth on edge.

We wanted to be near our daughter but not too near! Also wanted access to country but near amenities. Spent a few days driving around a radius of 30 minutes driving distance from our daughter, narrowed it down to one large village, only viewed one property there which we bought. Eighteen months later I can say it has worked out really well. Ironically our daughter loves our area too and is keen to move here. I would say keep an open mind and don't just look at obvious areas. We ended up somewhere I would never have expected to live in.

We moved to be closer to family but knew we didn’t want to be in the main town in the area for various reasons . So we had a rough target area.

In reality we fell in love with the first house we looked at and didn’t give much more thought to the village apart from making sure i could get a primary school place.
Fortunately we absolutely love it here !

I do think you can over think as in reality nowhere is perfect and I know we could have continued being happy with our previous London life too !
Good luck

Well, we knew we wanted to not be too far from family (ie within 90 mins drive). We also knew we had to commute via train to work. We found a really good website called commutefrom. It showed all travel times, annual season ticket prices, rail station parking costs, etc. Then from there, we used Rightmove to search within X miles of certain stations which we wanted to use to commute.

I agree that you can overthink it. We lost out on a house in our favoured location and after originally saying I wouldn't see the house we're in now because it was in a neighbouring town that's bigger and not as picturesque....we were amazed at how much more you could get for your money 15mins down the road. We absolutely love it now and I can't believe I nearly refused to view this house. I'd keep an open mind and view a range of things, I think that starts to help you narrow it down.

We moved from Berkshire to Yorkshire for family & picked an area in the town that had an outstanding primary, nice village centre, within 40 mins of work. However, the secondary catchment is mediocre at best so we are moving. We’ll be 20 mins from my parents which is fine, in a village in the countryside with lovely shops & restaurants, a nice community, good schools .. it’s the ‘posh’ part of the area I live in & I’m OK with that (although not remotely posh 😂). I want the best education for my children & the hope they meet nice friends with similar values to mine. 🤷🏼‍♀️

What my needs were/ type of area/ cost of housing /good schooling/health care.
So I needed a home suitable to adapt for my disabilities but also a family home. Didn't want to live in a city, needed to be with in a certain distance of support network. Housing needed to be within my means (checked what I'd get with a mortgage in principle). Schooling was important but wasn't looking for outstanding. Health care - needed to have access to large hospital both for adults and children.

Our city is where we both work / close to family / our side of the city due to friends here.
Then we chose a few secondary catchments we would be happy with (even though our child was 2 at the time 🤣)
Our actual neighbourhood we just found once we started to look at houses. It’s a bit tucked away and if you don’t know it’s here you wouldn’t pass through but it’s near amenities and lovely.

Schools, commute, lots of leisure amenities, lots of greenery, safe, family-oriented and somewhere with big houses and gardens. We did compromise on the local town centre being less fancy than I would like. However, any other area we considered had more compromises so it was a no-brainer.

No advise but I'm having the exact same problem
Keep thinking we've made up our minds and then something throws a curveball

A bit by chance really, I had quite a wide search area initially which was mainly based on budget but now I've lived here it would make moving hard and I wouldn't consider a lot of the areas i would have done a few years ago. I think schools, neighbourhood facilities, parking (it's very restricted in a lot of my city), public transport links, commute......

I had a long list including schools, transport, access to allotments and cultural diversity and then affordability and a quite location helped pick the house. Worked for us.

A big one for us was future proofing. Somewhere good for kids and teens. I also wanted somewhere where we could put down roots, and where our children could live nearby when they became adults, if they wanted to. So having good job opportunities nearby.

I grew up in a wonderful area, but as my siblings grew up we all moved away for work and now my parents are far from the grandchildren. So i moved somewhere where this might not happen.

I am really enjoying reading these - thank you! And finding them very useful! I am going to start making a list of what’s important to us, I have a sort of mental list, but one that seems to change every five minutes because I’ve never really nailed it down.

I like what a PP said about future proofing - that’s definitely one for my list.

Keep em coming!

After our rental was to be sold we had 10 weeks to find a new home!!.
Due to the specific we needed there wasn't much around!!
We viewed a house in semi darkness - barely any bulbs in!!
In an area we had never even visited!!
Had over 5 great years here now!!
Not really known to be a fab area but my adult dc have bought homes here. We have roots!

I am going to start making a list of what’s important to us

That’s always a good one. Even if the perfect place doesn’t exist, at least you’ll be able to decide what you’re happy to compromise on.

TBH, we pretty much put a pin in the map last time we moved. We needed to be somewhere in the midlands for DHs work, so we looked at the motorways, distance to airports, rail network, and then looked at a few towns and settled on where we are based on a weekend visit. We've been here 12 years and love it - the biggest thing was a town small enough to walk everywhere and have a sense of community, but enough facilities to let ds do stuff without being driven around

I wanted a house near a chip shop

We have an absolutely amazing chippy!?

Most people are limited by work in the first instance - so take into account how you get to and from work every day.
So near a station, or near a major motorway or on a regular bus route or a 'reasonable drive' (which will mean different things to different people).
If you can wfh and work anywhere, then you still need to think about if the wi fi is up to it, and, if you need to travel once a month or however often, if not daily.

Then, if you have, or plan to have dc, you think about schools - Primary and secondary. Research into catchment areas or what distance from school is likely to get you a place. Also, how, and how far you will travel.

You decide if you like / want to live remotely / in a City Centre / in a suburb / in a village / in a market town

You decide if there are other things important to you: to be near or a long way from family, or friends or your 'community' ; if you want to live in a culturally diverse area or not ; if you want to be able to reach another area regularly (perhaps for a hobby - climbing, walking, sailing - or to be near an airport for regular travel); if you want to avoid the noise of a flightpath or trains or a motorway or traffic

Of course you budget is usually the main dictator. However many of us want to live in Mayfair or Kensington, 99..999% of us couldn't afford it.

We decided, as much as we loved it, we didn't want to raise our children in a village, very few opportunities for them as teenagers, a lot of driving from us and I wanted them to be somewhere more diverse, the village we were in is a bit of a bubble.

Originally we looked at a "naice" nearby town mumsnet loves, beautiful, often voted best place to live in UK. But what you get for your money in such a small area was unjustifiable, just miles out got you so much more. Plus, the schools weren't great, unless you could afford private!

After lockdown and realising we really wanted to prioritise getting more house for our money, we looked at a town mumsnet hates, had a lot of my own prejudices about but soon realised it got us to London in an hour, has an amazing choice of outstanding schools, is getting loads of regeneration and house prices rising faster than most other towns. The estate and surrounding area we've bought in is lovely, the town centre isn't pretty but it's functional for our needs, safe, and gives our kids much more opportunities.

So my advice would be to expand your horizons, and challenge any preconceptions you may have about places, dig down and remember some reputations are old and not justified.

The nicest place we could get for our budget basically, that was about halfway between both our workplaces. 45 minute country road drive for me, 20 minute dual carriageway drive for my partner.

We wanted a village ideally as I grew up in a town and hated it. My partner had a very rural childhood but has also lived in the capital city of her country, so she's had experience of both and also prefers a more secluded life. Of course, that means that any children we have are going to be entirely normal and will want to actually be around people, but we will.cross that bridge when we come to it.

We weren't too fussed beyond that as we knew this house was just going to be a starter house, needing to see us through for 5-8 years. After that, we'll either look for something that has a more permanent feel to it, or we may even go to my partners country if I can find a way of getting an income over there.

Number 1. Catchment for best school.