Want to move out of Birmingham but where too!? HELP

[Kittykat1982]

So me and my partner have decided we want out of Birmingham (currently living in Sheldon). We have 3 kids (aged 4, 8 and 11) so schools play an important factor. We need to be within 30-45mins drive from the city centre for work reasons. Have toyed with Stafford/Tamworth/Burton/Cannock but have read some old reviews that haven't been very positive. We are after a 4 bed house for around the £260,000 mark so housing needs to be affordable. Can anyone help!?

I know all of these towns as I come from stafford and my job took me to all of these towns. My preferences would be stafford Burton or Cannock - I'm not keen on Tamworth. Have you thought about Lichfield and Rugeley as well

Thanks for the reply.. do you have any tips on where to look/avoid within those areas?

Stratford?

I wouldn't go for Stafford. Lichfield is nice but you wouldn't get a 4 bed house for £260k. I don't think you would Tamworth either? Cannock might be a touch over budget.

Agree with @leekandpotsoup - Tamworth isn’t really a place that comes to mind when I think of idyllic family living.

I actually really like Stafford and Cannock. I always find people are very friendly and you have access to some great outdoor spaces.

Lichfield is lovely but don’t think you’ll be able to get what you want for what you can afford there - house prices have risen there over the years I believe. And I feel like Stratford would definitely be out of the question!

Warwick, Leamington and Kenilworth are all lovely and very liveable with great schools and transport, cheaper than Stratford I think. But like everywhere quite expensive. Bromsgrove May be cheaper

Have you considered going the other way...Bromsgrove, Kidderminster, Stourbridge area?

You’re probably around 75k-100k under budget for Leamington/Warwick/Stratford at least.
What about Hinckley? Maybe a bit too far?

30-45 mi a commute is a big challenge and almost impossible to predict as we don’t know what post lock down rush hours will look like especially with the clean air zone coming.

Have you thought about using the cross city line trains ? Bronsgrove might work

Stafford is lovely. My DP commutes to Birmingham and we bought a 4 bed for 220k.

I mean, you could get a 4 bed in the Cannock area for that money, but that’s because it’s not that nice up there. Could you go for 3 beds with a view to extend? I don’t think you’ve got enough money for a four bed, with good schools in a nice rural area commutable to Birmingham.

On the other side, Rubery might just do it with the commute and would be doable for Birmingham schools. It's close-ish to the countryside and has Lickey just by. Redditch is cheap but a bit of a dump. After that you're getting a bit far out for 45 mins in rush hour, but there are places like Droitwich and Stourport.

Have you considered Stone? It's a lovely town. Litchfield is expensive but slightly away and cheaper is Stonnall.

Yes we have been looking at 3 beds with extension potential. Have widened our commute consideration to up to an hour too as work have said I will mostly work from home. It's so hard getting a feel for an area with covid restrictions..

I would say come south-Bromsgrove and surrounding areas. Stourbridge underrated and the area surprisingly lovely.

You’re probably around 75k-100k under budget for Leamington/Warwick/Stratford at least.

This, sadly. The one bed flat next to us in Leam has just sold for £195k. We’ve got an offer on a two bed for £300,000. Lovely areas, but you’ll be hard pushed to find a four-bed under budget, especially if you want the “nicer” bits. I think we should probably leave for better value for money, but it’s complicated by some family circs at the W moment, and here does still feel like home...

We looked at two houses in Cannock, which was highly recommended, and Droitwich, but DHs job has changed their mind on working from home and until they clarify, it’s a bit far away. We’re half an hour away here; really, but traffic in Warwick and Leam is dire usually so it takes an hour or so and he doesn’t want to commute more than that... I think an hour is a sensible limit, but you’d never get from Birmingham City Centre to Warwick in an hour at peak time.

I’ve heard Stone being recommended before, but we didn’t make it there to see what we thought.

I'm in Burntwood just outside lichfield. We have no shops but it's a lovely little place cheaper than lichfield with a few schools to choose from. Not much for the dc to do though. Tamworth and burton both have good shopping centres and things like cinema and bowling. Cannock and rugely are again nice areas but again no shops or things for dc to do.

I'm in Wolverhampton, you can easily get 4 beds for your budget, www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/95848940#/floorplan?activePlan=1

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85451707#/floorplan?activePlan=1

How are you intending to commute, I worked in Stafford for a while and at rush hour it is gridlocked but the station has loads of connections.

I was a supply teacher and mostly worked within 1 hour of Wolves by car, so as far south as Coventry and as far north as Stoke on Trent, I used the M6 toll for Birmingham and Coventry jobs.

It might be worth looking along the tram line, quite a few stops have free car parking if you are commuting to Brum city centre.

Try kidderminster its cheap and cheerful there are some nice areas

Stafford, cannock,rugely, stone all lovely areas.

We've been looking at houses in Warwick and Kenilworth for the last six months, Leamington not so much as schools aren't as good and also most of the houses we can afford are too far from town to realistically walk in. North Leamington is shocking, four houses by the IL's have sold in the last three months for £1M+ each

For the price of a terraced house in Warwick you can get a detached house in Rugby

Atherstone, Nuneaton, Arley,Fillongley might be in your budget

Ok, so we have assessed the budget and can go up to £290k. Have seen a house in wilnecote, tamworth that looks great and ofsted rating on schools nearby are good/outstanding. However, on having a little drive around the surrounding areas looked a little rough. Does anyone know Tamworth - wilnecote/stoneydelph in particular?