Where to buy a house near Birmingham?

[FreddoBaggyMac]

We have just found out that DH's job is moving to Birmingham and the likelihood is we're going to have to move pretty quickly - before the end of the year. It's going to be hard for us as we have four small children (all under 6)and no family or friends around there and we don't know the area at all, and also DD1 is really settled at her primary school here which is just a few minutes walk from our house...

Anyway, we need to look to the future and I'd be really grateful for any advice anyone can give me about buying a house in that area. Which areas are good, which to avoid etc... we have no idea at all as we've never even been there.

We basically want to be in a nice area for our DCs to grow up in and as short a commute to Birmingham as possible for DH. We need three bedrooms and a study and would like a garden. Most important, we need to be walking distance to a good Catholic primary school. We prefer older style properties (Victorian or earlier) but we need somewhere that doesn't require any renovation (or preferably even decorating!) as we just won't have the time for at least five years! Our budget is going to be around £250k.

Have heard that Bournville is nice - but there seems to be lots of areas within Bournville, I think Bournville village is going to be too expensive for us. Have also heard good things about Edgbaston, Harborne and Moseley - but again I suppose all of these places have good and bad areas within them... Have also thought about living further out (Whitwick, Malvern?) but perhaps the commuting time would be too long?

I'd be completely grateful for any advice from anyone as we're really stuck - we're not even going to have much opportunity to go and look at houses as we'll need to move quickly and have our DCs to consider (not easy to househunt trailing 4 DCs behind you!)
If anyone could provide me with links to houses for sale that might be suitable for us I'd be eternally grateful!!

Thank you in advance.

Wychbold - the park Rd house is here - doesn't actually look as nice from these photos though.

Like the look of this although might be a bit small... and this
Will have a look at Worcester too - but again it's probably a bit far out so don't want to get too excited about it yet... any thoughts on Worcester Tilly?

McDreamy: the classic places for Uni types are Harborne/Bournville/Kingsheath/Moseley. If you want to be outside the city then the area between the M5 and the A458 is v. popular: Belbroughton, Clent, Chaddesley Corbett etc. Depends on your budget though, it can be expensive round there.

Be aware that if you go Malvern direction then you have to cross the Severn to get to Worcester/Brum. Things on the 'wrong' side of the river tend to be cheaper. Also beware of flood risk round there. Personally, I wouldn't commute from Malvern, I think that it's too far. The AA route guide says it is 35 miles and 47 minutes. I don't believe that. I think it is more like 47 min from Malvern to Broms and then Broms to Uni is another 20 min on top of that!

Wychbold...OP said her husband would be commuting by train I think. If he were to drive from Malvern he would take M5 south of worc so not drive through the city. It is a very slow drive from west worcs to east in the rush hour so if living in worcs itself probably best to live in the north east of the city to commute to birmingham as Wychbold says.

I don't think any floods have reached Malvern itself. The places that get flooded are the parts of worcs right by the river and places further south like Tewkesbury, Upton. The railway line goes through worcester on high ground!

DH is basing it on train journeys and reckons he can get to the Uni in under an hour?

If we move closer and put our details into somewhere like Rightmove Sutton Coldfield seems to have alot of houses for sale for our needs/budget.

Sorry Freddo - don't mean to hijack but you have managed to group some very knowledgable Brum ladies

That's fine McDreamy - how you get as much useful info as I have

I mean HOPE not how... it's hard to type whilst bfing on your right side...

Quick U-turn!
McD you said that you are a military family: do you realise that there are (were?) a lot of employers related to Defence in the Malvern area? (eg QinetiQ) Would this affect your decision?

Looks some lovely stuff in Worcester.
Any comments on this or this or www.connells.co.uk/detail.asp?type=0&src=property&cs=87&bs=WOR&br=-1&prop=100003&min=200000&max=3000 00&bed=3&page=4&id=WOR303263?
Particularly like the look of the St John's one - anyone know the location?

There are 3 schools there on Chedworth Dr, Bransford Rd and Thoreloe Walk. Mustn't get too excited though as it may be too far out for Dh

The st john's one is close to the school on Bransford Rd too... but it is on the other side of the river to the station - would that be abig problem? It doesn't look too far over the other side... [must not get too excited about Worcester emoticon]

There are some lovely places in Worcester. I really like Worcester city centre - very pretty in places.

I personally wouldn't want to be commuting from there every day. I know people do and its far from impossible. I would think including time to station, your dh would be looking at about 1 hr 15 ish total travel time (assuming all goes smoothly)

St John's is nice enough. Quite close to the city centre and quite built up though. A bit more than where you are already I would think

There are some lovely more rural bits in Worcester - going out towards Droitwich train station. Are those the only RC schools in a WR postcode ?? Let me have a look where they are and see what's around them

Hmmmm - Chedworth Drive is in Warndon Villages - which is basically a massive estate of newish houses to the north of Worcester. Not what you're after I wouldn't think

Thorneloe Walk is close to city centre again - but I'm not sure I can picture it so can't really comment too much

TSM I don't know West Brom at all but whenever I've driven through it I've thought some of the roads look really nice and with some quite posh looking houses about. I never imagined there to be so much countryside that near to the town either and it's somewhere I've fancied moving to before now. Is it really not a good place to move to?

Have done a bit of ofsted research and the best schools on my list are i think:

St Mary's, Vivian Rd, Harbourne

St Nicholas, Jockey Rd, Sutton

Our lady of the Wayside, Statford Rd, Shirley, Solihull

So am probably going to base our search around those three areas to begin with as well as Norton because the area looks so good for us (and the school also looks pretty good)

Am worried about the grammar school system in Harbourne though - what percentage of children normally get into grammar schools? I'm thinking of a horrible situation in the future where some of my children get in and the others don't and the comprehensive is terrible and we can't afford to go private... Nedd to ring the schools too of course to see if any possibility of DD getting in!

Yes Tilly, am interested to know what it is that's wrong with West brom (at the risk of you never being able to pass through it again safely )?

Also, anyone have any recommendations of hotels we could stay at (with children) when we come to have a look around?!

Nappy - I suppose its like anywhere - there are some parts of West Brom which are nicer than others. There are a lot of big houses there and I think way back in the day, it was probably quite affluent (in the same way that Handsworth/Handsworth Wood was). Not sure where the countryside is though ?? Apart from Sandwell Valley which is nice

On the whole though, schools aren't great, crime rates are probably above national average and area is generally a bit rough. There are worse places to live in Brum, but I think there are definitely better ones as well. I think where you are is better

Freddo - because Harborne, Solihull and Sutton are in three different directions, I think you'd be best staying in city centre so you can assess where they are in relation to dh's commute etc. Somewhere like Pg0.asp his has family rooms and is just opposite Brindleyplace. Its a hotel chain, so nothing terribly exciting, but its nice where it is and has decent facilities and reasonable prices

I think you asked earlier why Harborne, Sutton Coldfield and Solihull were more expensive and I think you've just found your answer . Don't rule out Norton though - the primary school may not be as good but I suspect if you checked the Ofsted for the secondary in Hagley (and therefore the feeder school from Norton) it would be very good

Pg0.asphotel link again ?

Nope - not working... Its www.ramadabirminghamcity.co.uk

Freddo - if I were to liken West Brom to somewhere near to where you are now - it'd probably be Hartlepool

Re; worcester
St Johns has some nice roads and is on the whole a good area I think. Check flood risk with some of the lower lying roads. Depending on which part of St Johns it would be a 15 minute or so walk over the river to Worcester foregate street station (which has no parking).

Northwick (you linked to 2 houses there) is a good area and well placed for walking to foregate st station or accessing M5 north of worc. The victorian semi on Ombersley road looks nice..might be some traffic noise there. Might be better to look at roads behind.

Warndon villages are sprawling modern developments I think - don't think they would be what you are looking for. Tillyscoutsmum referred to a link in your post to warndon but can't find it.

Hotel looks good - thanks!