Owning your own home

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beseku in reply to @hugo7
We moved to Hitchin (previously renting in Herne Hill, Brixton before that). We've been delighted.

Pros:
- Trains are very very good, far better than the St. Albans line in terms of reliability/seating, and they run until 1:30 at night (or two if you want to cab from Letchworth). Takes me 1 hour door-to-door to get to my office in Fleet St.
- Town is lovely and new, decent places are beginning to spring up. There's two good indie coffee places and a great tapas place. Only downside is the relatively few good non-chains pubs, although there are a couple I like.
- Access to countryside for riding, village pubs is great.
- Loads of lovely old Victorian housing stock.
Cons:
- Roughly £3700 for a season ticket, (train only)
- Just got rated #9 in fastest selling houses outside London
- Prices are going up.
- It is between Stevenage and Luton. These places are shit holes. You have to pass through them a lot.

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hugo7 in reply to @beseku

Thanks I really appreciate that.

I've lived in zone 1/2 most of my life I'm irrationality struggling with the idea. There is long list of pros and every con I can think of can be easily countered.

It's totally irrational and I feel like such a middle class guardian reading prick for being OK living in a rubbish bit of zone 3/4 because I can rationalise it as being "vibrant", "diverse" or see "potential", but yet I get anxious about lots of sensibly built housing.

It's good to hear about other areas in that part of the world. Borehamwood is the only place that seems to balance price, space and a short commute/drive back into London. But I guess because the area hasn't grabbed me I'm now wondering if there are similarly practical places in that part of the world that I would like.

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beseku in reply to @hugo7

Oh we totally had this, and still do - we just got back from a holiday in New York and it feels parochial and small being back. As said above, it's all about the compromise and we found we could live with it here. But it is still a compromise.

The only other 'con' is that I miss riding my bike to work.

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