Good house bad area or overstretch ourselves for the primary schools?
Hi,
Partner and I (30s M&F) looking for house together to start a family. We live in Cambridge, I’m on 120k , partner is on around 60-80k depending on bonuses.
We’ve saved about £200k and are currently looking at properties between £400-500k. Those of you who know Cambridge will realise that price range doesn’t get you very good 3 beds. The best properties within that budget are in less desirable areas with not so good primary schools (we’re not thinking about secondary right now as we will likely move).
We could obviously borrow more but we enjoy having disposable income for travel and activities especially as both our families live abroad. We also need to factor in the income drop once I go on maternity.
My question is this: would you advise sticking to the price range we have and buying a good house in a relatively dodgy area?
Or stretch ourselves to borrow more and buy in a more desirable area with access to good state schools even if it means much less disposable income and probably would have to work full time?
(We know the saying “buy the worst house on the best street but we’re both too hopeless at DIY/ managing builders to consider a fixer upper right now).
We naturally lean towards the first option but speaking to other people makes us feel we’re making the wrong choice.
Our thought process is going to ok primary school with financially comfortable and available parents > good primary school with no money/time? We would consider private primary school if our child wasn’t doing well at state.
Would appreciate some outside opinions as it’s adding a lot of stress to house hunting !