Help me find a place to live in the W. Midlands

[Whereshallwelivee]

Currently in Dudley. Hate it. Dh from here originally, we had to move back a few years ago for many horrible reasons which made it difficult to go anywhere else. we were 160 miles away and I was v ill and LL sold up, in laws found us a place to rent here and then we bought a place to do up which has worked out V well for us as prices have risen here dramatically as well as the work we have done to the place.

We now find ourself tied to Birmingham for work for a while.

So, where can we move to that is nicer? Schools here are shocking. Got a year 5 child, who I don’t want to go to secondary here. Very bright so will be taking 11+. i know we don’t have much chance here of getting into a grammar but she wanted to do it and really enjoys the prep work (if I hadn’t given birth I’d swear she wasn’t mine!)

Top budget is 350k. We need 3 beds (toddler and an adult child at home as well as dd). We are currently in a 4 bed which is perfect for us as mainly work from home so smallest room is office space, but you get quite a big house here for the money, you wouldn’t get that somewhere nicer.

It’s predominantly schools which are my concern, secondary ones - youngest will be home educated.

I’d rather not be in W midlands at all, but we could never afford to go back to where we were living and we ar tied here for a bit with 3 of us working here now.

Sutton coldfield and worcester are places I don’t mind.

Please help!

I assumed nobody had mentioned it because it's a bit out of OP's price range.

I'd avoid Birmingham with their bankrupt council and now council tax will be 10 percent increase not just this year coming but the one after too. Public services will be hit hard as well.

I lived in Worcester for many years and commuted to Birmingham by train. If your DS is working in the centre of Birmingham it's doable - I worked shifts so was often on the 6am train or coming back fairly late at night. The nice thing about Worcester is that there is plenty of housing in nice areas that is walkable from the city centre. We lived in Battenhall, which I'd recommend, though I don't know much about the schools there. St John's is a bit cheaper and quite nice as it has its own high street - but lots of students and a total pain when it floods.

Our house went on the market today, so looking to move asap!

We wanted to buy in Worcester originally when we bought this house two years ago but couldn’t afford it. can only afford it now as we got very lucky with this house, it was priced to sell and we’ve done some work to it. it’s now worth 80k more than we bought it for. The market in Dudley is crazy - all houses have gone up so much. If we hadn’t bought here two years ago, we wouldn’t even be able to afford to buy (or rent!) here now. it’s mad.

Solihull and Leamington are completely out of OP’s price range. My one bed flat in Leam was valued at £210k when I sold it a few years ago. A three bed will be well over £350k, and the traffic to get to Birmingham every day would be shocking.

I also didn’t realise that you could apply for a full bursary at the RGS if you pass 11+ and their entrance exam. DD is very academic so hopefully that would be an option.

Alcester

If we were going to go that far out, I think I’d prefer Worcester.

I see you’ve made your decision, but found it interesting that you think Lichfield is ‘far out’ of the area when it’s considerably closer to Birmingham than Worcester.

It’s not just that. I like Worcester. We have spent a lot of time there. I’m already too far north for my comfort zone as a born and bred Londoner as well. I couldn’t have seen myself living north of Birmingham 😂

Op I am well excited for you. No doubt when I try to move I will have been priced out if the market

We are Sutton Coldfield and have sold up and moving to Lichfield. I wouldn't recommend Sutton Coldfield to anyone at all, not a nice or safe place anymore.

@Whereshallwelivee I’m from Worcestershire originally and I didn’t think Worcester state schools were that good, so you should do a proper check. RGS bursaries are means tested, so you’ll only get 100% if yourfamily income is quite low (no idea how much, but my dd had a bursary at KEHS in Bham and it was under £27k there, and I know they’re comparatively very generous).

In terms of getting your son driving, he could probably pass in the time it takes to sell and buy. Our ds was 17 in August, we couldn’t find an instructor so we took him out ourselves. He’s just passed. You have to get a test cancellation app like Genie - he took tests in Dec,Jan and Feb and could have got one even sooner.

Oh I'm so excited for you! It sounds like you're all ready to go ! The hardest decision is always where,but you've figured it out and I rea!my don't think you'll be disappointed with Worcester.

@Whereshallwelivee I live in Worcester and have done most of my life after being brought up in not-so-dynamic Hereford. I honestly don’t know an awful lot about Battenhall, apart from our local bus goes to it but I’ve been in St Peter’s since I moved here and it’s just awesome.
The villages are nice (most of our family is in Kempsey and it’s lovely but pricy!) other nice ones are Claines, Rushwick, Upton, Lower Broadheath, Inkberrow- heaps to choose from if you aren’t fussy about public transport.

Crime rate is low, there are a couple of lost dogs but someone usually rounds them up. A post on the local Facebook about a couple of youths doing knock a door run and could the parents please remind them that children may be asleep before 7:30pm. Other posts of note are a couple of lost cats, a couple of found bank cards, and a little bit of uproar about the local Tesco now using APR parking so no return within an hour.

if you want to know anything in particular I can help with what I can! Transport links are great to Birmingham, easier to go by train than car from Parkway. Restaurants tasty, schools great, lots to do on the Severn. My eldest is 13 so I have a good feel for most of the local high schools too. (Hanley, Tudor, RGS, Kings, Bishops Perowne, Blessed Edwards and Nunnery- as well as the Norton-juxta which is a 3 tier school system).

I have asked my husband and apparently Battenhall is pretty much St Peter’s he thinks… 😂

Christ, our house only went on the market yesterday, already had 3 viewings from people who were on the agents notification list for this road (houses here are rare to come up), one has offered 2.5k under asking price and one of the others is going to look at finances and get back to the agent on Monday.

We did the same when we bought it, agent called me to say house on X road is coming on today, would you like to see it and we went the next morning and offered right away.

I will never understand the housing market here!

To be fair, I was dreading tidying the garden for photos next week 😂

Wow! That's fab news OP. It sounds like you know how to find gems - hope you accept an offer soon. Then the exciting bit can start !

@TheGirlWhoLived can I pick your brains on areas please?

Where is good for secondary schools?

The trouble we are finding with Northwick/Barbourne is that all the 3rd bedrooms are small.

We have 10 and 3 year old sharing a room and 21 year old ds in another - box rooms are just too small. we have one in the house we’re in now, but it’s dh office (works from home 4 days a week). We would only fit a bed and chest of drawers in it, ds work uniform and equipment alone takes up half a wardrobe!

We know we will have to go smaller, we have so much room here. we are moving for a better area.

Panic is on now as we accepted an asking price offer today from a family in rented accommodation.

This is nice:

Yes, that’s on the list 😁

It’s what we lived in for years in London. But it would take a bit of getting used to, size wise, after the house we are in now. We have an office (the little 4th bedroom), a playroom, living room, dining room, kitchen diner, utility, 3 double bedrooms.

I know we can’t afford the same size house in a nicer area though. I’ve just had a couple of years of being spoilt with space!

Decor wise, it’s uncannily like our house though, even down to the same tiles in kitchen and bathroom and colours used. I could move right into that and not touch a thing!

Worcester into the centre of Birmingham is quite a drive for a daily commute . OK on the train as you are able to switch off .

That’s my worry for ds but with his shifts and funny hours, train times won’t work half the time. This week, his three late shifts have all run over and finished at 2am. That’s pretty normal.

dh it would be 50 mins to work. But he’s only in the office one day a week, sometimes not at all for a couple of weeks.

Do not dismiss St Johns from your list on the basis of flooded bridges - the 'new' carrington bridge which is accessed off the Malvern Road is now 2 lanes (lack of foresight to make it single carriageway both ways when built!) and takes you to the M5 without going through town! Also gets you to the Parkway station.

Also St Johns is useful as a small shopping centre and has an Aldi and a Sainsburys, Pharmacies and a library. Walking into town is easy and is lovely in summer walking by the river.

I have lived in Battenhall and it is very nice but the London Road into town can be horrendous.

Hope you enjoy Worcester - try and live not too far out - new estates are spreading westwards very fast.