Stress: Where to live? In Edinburgh, East Lothian relocation.

[flopseyR72]

I’m having a dither stress.
I am relocating back home to Scotland.
wfh.
I have two young primary kids ( single parent) need good state school.
Aiming for a forever move suitable for young through teenage children.
I’m quite old so not interested in night life etc.
I have around £700k house.
I need to move ASAP and it’s hard for me to visit view because of kids school and work.
I won’t rent ( been stuck where I am doing that) to try as kids need school place and I need to buy in the permanent area.
Where is the best place to live. It has to be Edinburgh or East Lothian no other places.

I was thinking North Berwick but it’s even more expensive than normal post pandemic. It looks nice but the estate agents are coming across as smug re the house prices.

With that budget take your pick! Loads of lovely areas. Colinton or there's Morningside etc.

Morningside! Best part of Edinburgh, brilliant school, and you can afford it.

Yes morningside is nice but was thinking maybe somewhere a bit quieter, also detached with a garden so my budget isn’t that high for the properties I want ( not a flat)

Fairmilehead. Have just done a quick search on Rightmove. Quite a few coming up in budget.

Thanks I’ll have a look.

What is anyone’s thoughts on East Lothian? Everyone seems to be very keen on north Berwick although I worry it’s very small and also re above I find the prices inflated and the EA a bit smug!

Musselburgh

N Berwick is smug but with good reason. Good school and lovely location. It is small but you can get the train to Edinburgh. Alternatively Dunbar is increasing popular and goodish school.

In Edinburgh good schools tend to be in the south side or crammond . So gillespies, boroughmuir and royal high. Crammond has horrific noise pollution from the airport. South side is v expensive

Musselburgh doesn’t have good schools and isn’t v nice

We live in Fairmilehead, you should be able to get a detached property for that amount- one going on our cul de sac for offers over £610k.
Slight issue is that the catchment for most of Fairmilehead is Pentland Primary and Firhill, they are ok schools but don't have the greatest reputation.
But some of the new estate ones are Buckstone Primary and Boroughmuir High which is better, or if you can find a property in Buckstone you're definitely in the catchment for those schools.

Use this website to find out www.edinburgh.gov.uk/catchmentmap

Yes thanks so hard to decide. Probably not portobello/ Musselburgh.

I’m used to living busier places that’s the reservation of north Berwick and smaller places in East Lothian. Although as I’m getting on a bit I was thinking maybe I should think of making the traditional move to quieter place?

I think there would be enough to keep teens amused in North Berwick when they getbto that stage, and the direct train to Edinburgh only takes 30 minutes. I'd be reluctant to live anywhere smaller/more remote than that.

Haddington in East Lothian is lovely and only 15/20 mins to the coast or to Edinburgh by car. Also building lots of new builds and you could get lots for your money with that budget. Also lovely style houses too

Yes definitely no more remote than north Berwick.
I think Fairmilehead to borougmuir sounds quite a long school run?

Not Haddington because I don’t know it mainly.

@flopseyR72 there is a direct bus - Number 11 - that goes every 10 mins during morning rush hour, and it takes around 25-30 mins or a bit less if they get on before 8.

Students get free bus passes in Scotland and there's always loads of them on the bus if I'm unfortunate to get my bus to work at that time.

Sorry the commute I'm talking about is from Fairmilehead /Buckstone to Boroughmuir.

Thanks. I was hoping somewhere with high school closer you can walk to maybe?

I think 30 minutes is a long bus commute to school

It's a fair few bus stops but your kids get to go to Boroughmuir :)

(biased!)

Here's an article which contains Edinburgh's top listed secondary schools www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/edinburgh-schools-ranked-best-worst-20579159 .
Balerno might be an option- don't know much about it though.

You could easily get a lovely detached house/bungalow in Greenbank for that money – close to Morningside, nice and quiet, good buses and schools, close to green spaces too.

Firrhill is the third best school in Edinburgh on exam results and my friend's kids were very happy at Pentland Primary so I wouldn't write those off at all.

I have a lot of very happy friends in North Berwick, it wouldn't suit me personally as... well, as you say, smug. And eye-bleedingly expensive.

South Side does have better schools but you will be pushed to get a 3 bed house there for that money at the moment. The market is mental.

@MaChienEstUnDick apologies I didn't mean to denigrate any school - my state schools knowledge is a few years out of date.

@MoonOnASpoon - I'm not so sure the budget would stretch that far in Greenbank - property prices have become ridiculous over the past few months.

Yes I was considering a house in north Berwick but there is this post pandemic house boom requiring you to bid over the house price BG loads in cash. I could do it but felt uneasy. E.g house I looked at sold £600 in 2019 now oo £700 sold for nearly £800k which to me is a bit concerning.