Great house or great location?

[Evergreen101]

Which house would you pick?

For context, my situation:

• We have 1 child, with plans for more
• We are quite urban and have always lived near nice amenities
• First house we are buying

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House 1:
High level score:

• House itself: 10/10
• Location: 6/10
• Investment potential: 6/10

Comments:

• Great detached house that just went under a refurb, no renovations needed. Could easily be a 'forever home'
• Full open plan, kitchen dining
• Massive south facing garden
• Suburban feel, very quiet.
• Location is so-so, still yet to be gentrified. It will be more of a departure from where we live currently and will be a major change of lifestyle
• Some okay schools, will most likely have to go private
• Less prestigious area, reputation is so-so
• More expensive than house #2 and will stretch us to our limit; it will be very tight for the next 2-3 years
• IMHO, it's unlikely to go up in value very much because it's above comparables in the area and the sellers are totally not budging on price

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House 2
High level score:

• House itself: 7/10
• Location: 9/10
• Investment potential: 9/10

Comments:

• Good terraced house and has also been refurbed recently
• Needs some work to open the kitchen and dining area but it can be opened up without structural work
• Small patio garden
• While it's only a little smaller than house #1, because it's a single front terraced house vs. double front detached, the space does feel narrower
• Urban feel
• More affluent/prestigious location with amenities nearby (tons of green grocers, cute cafes and wine bars/pubs nearby). It will be less of a departure from where we live currently and will be less of a change of lifestyle
• Well known to have excellent schools, both public and private
• 10% less expensive than house #1 and would mean we are quite a bit more comfortable
• IMHO the area has better investment potential because of the amenities and excellent schools

Space and distance to public transportation are about the same so I haven't really mentioned it above.

Which house would you go for and why?

Location, location, location. Always.

I think buying a house forces you to identify your priorities really clearly. I have a massive garden because it’s important for me that my kids have a free-range, outdoorsy lifestyle and I like space. The downside is very few amenities and a fair amount of driving, which I don’t like but I have made peace with it. If I were you, I would be thinking about if there’s any way to have the good state schools plus the garden, even without things like shops and cafes. But that’s just me: urban buzz is less important to me than schools and space.

Hmmm if it had a proper garden (bigger than a patio) house 2 would be a slam dunk. Are there houses with a slightly bigger garden in that area? I think houses in good state school areas are going to become even less affordable in the next three years when Labour introduce a 20% tax on school fees. It costs 40-50k of after tax income a year to put two children through private school around the south east so I would think very carefully about catchments. Even if you plan to go private, you want to be in an area where the schools are sought after for resale if nothing else.

Who is going to maintain this?
it's a 150 sq ft+ south facing garden with a swing set, tree house and vegetable patch. I can just picture our kids running around there

If that is your dream...what about in winter?

Are there parks at the other location?
A small patio for paddling pool and local park might be just as good

Terraces can be a huge hit or miss with the neighbours. I rented one years ago. It was glorious until neighbours from hell moved in next door. I ended up ending my tenancy as I couldn't cope with screaming and shouting every single night through paper thin walls, and the constant smell of smoking wafting into my house whenever they smoked out of the back door (even with my windows closed the smell got in).

@Evergreen101
I'm not sure this 100% answers your question as our house in better location still has a decent sized garden and is detached so slightly different circumstances but the house DH wanted originally had a bloody massive one and I'm so glad we didn't get it. So much upkeep in gardens, DH loves gardening (and has also got an allotment to grow veg with DD) but it's a bit of a time drain with young kids etc. I guess it depends how small and what you can do with it: we have friends with terraced house and they have enough space for pots and a small lawn with trampoline and other kids garden tat

The terraced vs detached massively sticks out to me. That's a huge difference.

It might be no big deal if your neighbours are nice and there are thick walls, but the opposite..... eek.

Detached would be a huge pull for me.

Honestly OP neither seem right for you, but I especially wouldn't go for House Number 2.

With younger children, a garden is an absolute godsend and a small patio just won't cut it. It's great that parks etc are nearby but that's not the same as children being able to play out the back.

My two DC are 13 yrs old now (but both have significant SEN so are much younger than their biological years) We're just about to move to a new house with a 70ft south-facing garden. Watching them run around, I wish I'd been able to do it before.

And I'm going to buck the trend on this thread, I don't put location first. Admittedly, I wouldn't want to live in a shit area, but I'm happy living in a meh location but with a better house, than a fab location and a smaller house/garden. Our new house is only in an OK location but the streets are nice and quiet, and the house is so much larger than what we could have found elsewhere.

For me, the house always trumps location up to a certain extent. When I close my front door I don't care about what's outside, as long as I'm not disturbed by noisy neighbours and I'm in a safe area, I'm happy.

With terraced housing, you just need one noisy neighbour and it can absolutely destroy your sense of well-being.

Can you not find option 3 - not quite so financially painful but not terraced, and with a bit more of a garden? (End of terrace can be a good solution!)