I'm moving to north Manchester and I don't know what I'm doing

Obviously Levy.

Todmorden or Hebden is a good shout though, train takes half an hour and it's lovely round there.

Is Levy short for something, can’t find it on the map?

Levenshulme.

Looking at the previous comments the Western suburbs (Old Trafford, Chorlton, Stretford etc) seem to be the popular places?

Popular but not sure your 190 will give you lots of options for 3 beds? Not as close to hilly countryside either, although mersey valley is a niceish "green corridor".

Looking into it with wifey this morning and Levenshulme seems pretty bang on for being close to the city and still pretty green with not mad prices either.

And most importantly, you'll be close to me.

If you want to help out your local area before you move here then consider chucking these guys some cash.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/station-south

There's quite a lot of new stuff going on in Levy at the moment, but that's probably the one I'm most excited by. The Fallowfield loop is top for riding to other parts of South Manchester, or further afield if you link up with canals and stuff, a place to stop on it would be great, and it's 30 seconds from my house. There's also a really nice new bar open down the other end of levy, another decent one that opened last weekend opposite station south, more in the works including turning the old sorting office into a kind of indoor short lease trading market thingy, and the actual market every week. It's all becoming a place you want to hang out at, not just a place to have your house in and head to town, whilst still maintaining the occasional bout of scooter based street violence and bus wanking that gives an area it's edge.

I'm away this weekend but will chuck my thoughts in either tomorrow or Monday if you've not whacked your deposit down yet.

Money still very firmly in the back pocket! Due to work commitments the next time we'll be able to be up all together to look at schools and houses will be the second week of October, so we'll make a holiday of it and spend some time in the peaks too.

Really does look like Levy is a great shout and pretty much exactly what we'd want from city(ish) living, but just need to tot up if we'd want more of the country life we're used to (in which case Glossop might win out).

It's pretty easy to go from either to the other TBF.

My boss recently moved to Mossley, pretty decent MTBing on the doorstep, quick train journey or a nice downhill ride into town and not too inbred seeming as a place.

£190k will get you two normal houses in Bolton, or one mansion.

Yeah, but they'd be in Bolton.

If Levenshulme is about right, you could probably check Heaton Chapel, Heaton Moor, Cheadle and Cheadle Hulme.

Old Trafford is now above that 190k price. I did see a doer-upper come on the market in O.T last week at £170k, it disappeared after a day. No idea if it sold, but highly likely.

I did see some nice 3 beds in Stretford about 4 weeks ago too, for £180k.

I moved to Unsworth in the end, which is near Whitefield, both of which are in Bury (borough of) just outside the M60.

Pros:

1. quiet, pretty safe area (compared to South Mcr which feels more "urban")
   
2. very quick access on bike to countryside
   
3. cheap
   
4. absolute lack of pretentious London shit
   
5. quick to ride or drive or tram into town
   
   

Cons

1. Bit boring?
   
2. Overwhelmingly white British (see above)
   
3. Roads are actually not that nice to ride on in my immediate vicitnity and in a belt that kind of stretches from St. Helens to Oldham across north Manchester
   
4. tucked in a little corner where the M60 and M66 cross, so close to motorways
   
5. No real town/village centre. Need to go to Prestwich or Bury for that.
   
   

We've not decided where we'll end up long-term. We're here because of my wife's job (see upthread) and her commute is pretty ace now. I like Prestwich because it's just a little bit more exciting and city-like, but it's quite expensive. On the other hand, there are places like Horwich and Ramsbottom that are nice Lancashire towns/villages - a bit like Glossop actually.

So AMA!

Yeah, Heatons and Cheadle are nice, bit further out and you'd have to put up with an SK postcode, bits of Burnage are cool too.

Apparently Cheshire postcodes have lower insurance rates than Stockport postcodes... There was once "uproar" from residents who wanted to keep their Cheshire codes. Can't remember the details, but I think it was in Heaton Mersey.

Maybe related, but my grandparents moved from Stockport to Wilmslow when the former stopped being part of Cheshire in the mid-70s. They had certain views.

Thanks all, seems promising! We have got an AirBNB in Levenshulme for a week in October and we’ll go explore and looking at houses and schools from there. Hopefully we’ll make a decision off the back of that!

How old are the kids?

10 and 5. One’s just started reception and the older is in yr6 so we need to look at primaries and secondaries too!

Dunno secondaries but my 8 year old is very happy at Alma Park, and I've always been impressed with them too. Chose it because there's no religion in there but if that doesn't bother you then there's a couple of other options that are also meant to be good, Chapel Street I've heard a few bad things about though.

Also just moved to Manchester (well Salford technically I guess)
Anyone got any recommendations for workshops/mechanics/bike shops looking to get some wheels trued mainly but would be good to know some decent stores anyway (couldn't find a thread on this?)

Come see me.
Easiest would be to pop into the rapha workshop (St. Ann's square, behind the church) for wheel truing, but can do mobile servicing too. PM me or 07389065234 is the direct workshop line.

Glad you got in there before some else gave the standard "Guy at Harry Hall's" answer :-D

Or I guess Guy at Harry Hall's is OK.