Expensive area or cheaper area

[nattering]

We have two young children under 3. We are in a position to buy an average house in a posh area or a nice house in a cheaper area.

The expensive house (central) will take up all of our cash (200k ish) + most of our stocks for a decent deposit. The area is lovely and I really like it. It is near a fantastic primary school and lots of parks. The house itself is OK, we maybe able to improve it down the line but initially it won't be super comfortable. The garden is tiny.

The cheaper house (village) will leave our investments untouched as we will use the cash for our deposit. It is a nicer house, we will be comfortable there and financially secure. The area is unexciting but does have nice nature and an RSPB park.

I am really torn what to do. The sensible choice is to go village and have a diversified portfolio, much larger house and a large garden for the kids. I suspect we will be near more young families too.

But I am more excited about the posh area (maybe my ego) and also wonder if living centrally will be better for the kids when they are a bit older. There will be more things to do.

What would you do? Have you had to make a similar choice?

I was all set to say the village house but then realised that there isn’t a shop. That in itself would rule out the village for me.

I'd go for the village location with a view to moving for secondary school personally.

Hard to know what you mean by ‘cheap’ or ‘posh’. But for us location was always key-in terms of local amenities, being able to walk to most places, public transport etc. we live in a cheaper area of our town though. But it’s perfectly nice. I can’t think of anything worse than living in a village, I would hate to car dependent, and your kids will have limited independence.

You are right of course! But I still wouldn’t want to not have a shop close by.

Depends what kind of lifestyle you want. Do you like a slower-paced, low-stress, outdoorsy lifestyle? Do you like spending time at home? If so village is great. Can you at least walk to the school? That is more important than shops.

Or do you like a more buzzy lifestyle and to be able to get to amenities on foot? If you prefer being out and about in town rather than at home, the more urban area is great and smaller house doesn’t matter. Overall this option will be more expensive (partly because of the cost of the property but also imo living in a town is expensive if you are going out to eat, shopping etc a lot).

If you can afford both, choose the life you want. It might be that you need something in between (suburbia? Bigger village?)

Also do consider secondary if you want to avoid moving twice