Move out of current area for bigger house?

[PinkPrettyAndPointed]

We've been trying to buy a bigger house in our current area for about 12 months.

Houses get snapped up quickly, and usually go for over asking price.

I've seen a lovely house, great size and reasonably priced but it's about 15 minutes from where we are now.

We will all miss this area, it's perfect, but would a bigger house be worth it?

Anyone compromised on location and been pleasantly surprised by the new area?

I did and don't regret it. I'm 10 mins drive from my "perfect" location, but I love my house and the space and potential it offers me. It helps that I'm in a small, quiet road, with lovely neighbours. There are loads of roads in this area that I'd have ruled out.

It really does depend on the area though, and you have to be careful not to overlook things simply as you've fallen for a particular house. I feel safe in my area, although I'm sure many would turn their noses up at it. It's a bit rough around the edges, but has a sense of community.

Yes and do not regret it at all so far. The extra space has been so worth it.

The 'new' area is really nice too, but just not our current area. I think we'd be happy enough there.

When we viewed a house there the DC got upset, and as dh doesn't mind either way I feel it would just be me pushing it.

I think you’d all need to be on board a bit more than it sounds otherwise it will on next on you and that wouldn’t be fair to you!

Yes we did it. We moved from a small city to a village about twenty minute drive away. At first we were unsure on the village as it didn't have best reputation however from visiting it a few times we realised people only remembered what it was like in the late 80s early 90s and it had improv d loads. We were able to sell our tiny 2 up 2 down and buy a nice 3 bed with huge garden for 35k less than our city house. We've been here eight years now and have zero regrets. Where we live has an amazing community, it's safe for the kids to play, it has two primary schools rated good by recent Ofsted's, there are dance classes, community projects, play groups, a library. It's perfect for a family. I'm so glad we made the move.

My sister has just bought a house about ten minutes walk from where we used to live and even though it's a lovely house, the traffic congestion and air pollution definitely puts me off wanting to live there.

I know when the kids are older they will want to be in the city more but as it's only a twenty five minute bus journey away (2 buses an hour) or 10 minute train journey (1 an hour) it shouldn't be too much of an issue

We aren't living in the perfect location that we wanted 8 years ago but we are now living in a close to perfect location for us now and have grown to love it. Having a house large enough for a family of five, with a garden big enough for kids to run around in and explore is definitely best choice we made

We moved from a very central area in London to a travelcard zone further out, it's about 3.5 miles away so not really far, but a different London borough and different vibe. Schools are better in the new area so it's worked out well for us (for primary and secondary so not looking to move until dcs finish school), although public transport connections aren't quite as good. Houses just weren't coming on the market in our old area as it's so central that most properties are flats, and the few houses that came up were smaller than we needed.

I miss some of the amenities we used to have (big arts centre and mainline rail station a short walk away, with connections to the coast). I travel back to our old area for swimming lessons and music classes as there's nothing comparable in the new area. But it's great having more space for the dc (moved from a 2 bed flat to a 4 bed terrace) and the new area is still very desirable, with lots of amenities and things for dc to do, including a huge park in walking distance. New area is also walking distance to DH's office so it's much less stressful for him to be able to stroll to work instead of dealing with tube strikes and slow buses.

It depends what your set up is and whether you have children. We have teens here, moving would mean we'd be constantly driving them to and fro to friends / parties etc.

We moved from a major city (born and raised) to a town 8 miles (15/20 minute drive) away. I really didn't want to move out of our area but we needed a bigger house and couldn't afford it where we were. It's early days (been here 4 months) but so far, so good.

It's not our ideal location but it's not a million miles away and we have far more space and peace now (we're also paying less in monthly mortgage payments than we were in our old place). It's been worth being a bit further out as it's improved our quality of life.