Urgent advice/opinions on these suburbs of Manchester please

[selby]

Moving from the SW to Manchester. Opinions please on the areas of Boothstown, Monton, Stretford, Urmston & Worsley. Looking for excellent state primaries. More importantedly, what are these areas like in comparison to Altrincham/Wilmslow (where our preference would be if money was no object). Getting stressed because our rental budget which is a relatively generous £1.5K pcm will mean us downsizing considerably. Can stretch to £2K pcm (reluctantly cos it obviously impacts on our budget to buy 12 mths down the line). For comparison's sake, we like areas similar to Solihull in the West Midlands and it has to be SW Manchester! DH doesn't want to compromise house size (2000 sq ft) whereas I'm happy to compromise for a good location e.g walking distance to an excellent primary school. I'm begging for some expert local opinions on the above areas to show DH the error of his ways when he gets home tonight and strengthen my argument to live in/near Altrincham.

My sister lives in stretford and says it is fine.
But she is 22, with no children or pets and probably doesn't go out into the real world very often.
Everyone else who hears "stretford" sucks in breath through their teeth and winces.
It is near football ground too I believe...if that has impact on your decision making.

can you go a bit more south, and less west? Chorlton, Withington etc might be good compromises.

I live in south Manchester area and would choose it over North Manchester, Altrincham is nice but you will have to pay more. Timperley is next to Altrincham and is a good family area, & slightly less expensive.

Yes Timperley or Sale would be good. Both Trafford, so grammar school LA

Thanks for all the replies so far - we have 2 children . DS starts school this coming Sept. We currently live in a large 4 bed house with double garage. We want to move/squash all our worldly possessions into a not too smaller sized house to avoid the incovenience/hassle of storage which is the reason we have a generous (IMO, at least) budget for rent. Our prob looks like the lack of family sized homes for rent in areas like Altrincham. We intend to buy after a year of renting but due to DS starting school in Sept, we wish to avoid uprooting him and changing schools 12 mths down the line so this is the reason that we need to try to get it right (as much as possible) by renting in the area that we think that we are most likely to buy. Personally, I quite like and can cope with the house on Park Road, Timperley but DH thinks we cannot fit our stuff in there even if we culled quite a bit before we moved. We have looked on Rightmove so we are shocked that it's more expensive than the SW.

BTW, we're moving from a house with 4 reception rooms & 3 bathrooms so would find it hard to squeeze into a small 4 bed house even as a temporary measure and could only do so if we got rid of half our stuff or put it into storage (we would rather pay extra to rent a bigger house)

Grew up in south Manchester and much nicer than north (IMO). Wilmslow is very expensive and other areas nearby (like Bramhall and Poynton) are nice and much cheaper in terms of houses. I have friends who live in Bramhall now and there is at least one great primary school there.

IIRC Urmston is horrible, Stretford is a bit rough, Lived and worked around Altrincham and is very posh but snobby too.

I lived in Hale, not too bad... Sale is awful, Broadheath even worse (lived there too) Altrincham is celebsville (think Johnny Marr, Tim Booth!) but Timperley is good as is Knutsford/the towns down the tramline, heading into Cheshire.

They are quite dear too.

Worsley, Urmston and Davyhulme definitely the nicest areas in North Manchester (the others aren't as nice IMO). The better districts are probably towards the south of the city; Wilmslow, Altrincham, Bowdon, Didsbury and Alderley Edge(WAGs paradise!) are the priciest, followed by Bramhall, Woodford, Cheadle Hulme, Gatley and Poynton. I live in Woodsmoor which is next to Bramhall but not as expensive; whilst it's not got the villagey 'hub' of the abovementioned (it's more of a district) it's a nice, quiet, family area with a fantastic infants/junior school and great rail links. Hope this helps - good luck with your house-hunting.

It really depends on what you are like as those areas are all quite different. Stretford is an inner city area, the others a bit more suburban.(the sort of places people move from the inner city to for 'better schools')
Monton is grotty.

Great job opportunity for DH. Currently in desirable area of Bristol so not exactly in the sticks but we did buy our current house 3yrs ago. DH needs a garage for his sports car (insurance purposes and I will never be able to persuade him to get rid although I have been trying along with MIL for the last 5yrs) plus we will be needing a further 2 parking spaces.

Hi selby,
we moved to wilmslow last year and I looks around as lots of areas before settling. Of all the places you mentioned, the only one I would consider living in with school age kids is worsley. Worsley seemed like a little pocket of poshness surrounded by salford so it wasn't for me. Also I think the secondary school was a bit rough.

Altrincham/hale are nice but pricey. Sale and timperley are close, less expensive but still nice. All these areas are in the borough of Trafford so they have the 11+ grammar system at secondary level. Good primary schools too.

Despite what gooseyloosey said, we didn't find bramhall any cheaper than wilmslow. If you look at bramhall, north of the roundabout is cheaper but then its in the catchment for the one bramhall school which nobody wants. The other 5 or something were fab but it came down to house for us so wilmslow won. Bramhall was also so busy with traffic that we were late for the appointment. Poynton was cheaper but not much to it. The school was good there too.

It also depends on what type of house style you want. Altrincham/hale houses are mainly victorian/edwardian. Beautiful but small gardens. Bramhall 1920s &30s, Wilmslow is a mixture of 1920/30s, 1980's and new builds.

HTH

The house on Park Road would be very awkward for getting in and out of your drive in rush hour as traffic cues up there and goes long way down the road.

does it have to be south manchester? there are parts of north manchester that are very , very nice and less expensive than altricham, hale, wilmslow, didsbury etc....

however, altrincham is lovely

I live in south Manchester but work in Stretford and tbh I wouldnt choose to live here. There are some small pockets of nice houses but I don't think the area is great (there was a shooting at the top of the road last week).

I would definately look at the following areas

Timperley (v close to Hale/ Altrincham, 5 mins drive) and good metro links. I live here and its great for schools, amenities etc, and is only 5mins drive from Hale/ Alti, 25 mins drive from the city centre, 10 mins to the airport. Prices are quite a bit less than Hale

Hale Barns/ Bowdon- Price wise these should be the same as Hale but worth putting them in your search in case you're missing a bargain!

I personally think Knutsford is lovely but a bit too far from the city for me (work). Mobberley and Ashley are lovely options, more in the countryside but only 15 mins Hale in the car and usually cheaper.

Not sure if you have these but good local estate agents

www.Watersons.net
www.gascoignehalman.com
www.thornleygroves.com
www.mellorbraggins.com
www.ianmacklin.com
www.jhilditch.com
www.holmesandsellers.com

as well as the usual suspects of course

HTH!!

I am in Poynton (not much to it! humph) but when moving also looked at Bramhall and surrounds, Cheadle and Cheadle Hulme. They are all nice but Poynton/Hazel grove a bit cheaper. Most of the schools round here are good. I have good friends in Stretford but I wouldn't live there, too inner city for me - also problems with the schools. Altrincham is nice, and Timperley. I work in Wilmslow which imo is nicer than Alderley Edge! Prestbury posh, think Wayne and Colleen live there!

I live in manchester

AVOID MOSTON & HARPURHEY liek the plauge.

Chorlton is lovely, but some parts arent,

Didsburys lovely.

Urmston is lovely

Stretord - again some areas nice some not.

Id go with Urmston TBH.

a friend of mine lives in Sale it's very leafy and houses are quite big (lots of edwardian ones) - she gets into work v quickly in central manchester on the tram.