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I'm the opposite of a few others above in that I want to move back to where I grew up. Only left as I had to due to there being poor employment opportunities back home. It's still crap there but the big killer is the price of properties there, it's a popular place for City folk to move to. All I want really is a small place of my own, preferably with a small garage, access to the countryside and enough local amenities to tick along.
I don’t really see anyone as “stuck” somewhere they don’t want to be or not have the option to leave.
People can absolutely be in the position where a move is completely unviable.
I'm stuck in that position. Living in Cardiff renting a 1 bed flat and I can't afford to move anywhere else as rents have skyrocketed. I'm very lucky that my landlord has never put my rent up in the decade I've been in my current place so I'm paying nearly half what comparable places are going for. I could afford the higher rents at a pinch but as it's only me I fail the affordability criteria regardless. I've had to give up a good job because I couldn't move and am stuck looking at the crap local work that pays lower than almost anywhere else in the country!
I live where I grew up. My parents had a big garden in which I built a house… after years of living abroad. House prices in Gower are too high for most normal people with a normal (for Swansea) job to buy a house.
On one hand I find the idea of deciding to move somewhere different without an overriding reason a bit odd. There are loads of people who have come to live here and that has always confused me. The funny thing is that when they arrive they often want to change it or stop it being changed when it needs to change. As I didn’t really chose to live here if something is annoying I don’t have to wonder why the hell I moved to here and have to put up with this or that… if that makes any sense. I also don’t have to work out the compromises that inevitably come with a decision to move somewhere.
Saying all this, as time goes by I am increasingly drawn to the idea of living somewhere else… and so have been playing with the idea of where that could be and why. I have realised that it is actually a really hard decision to make. There are quite a few good things about Gower, SW Wales, Wales, etc. I would have to give some of those up in return for other things… what would I choose?
I also find that when I go to somewhere else rural and with a strong identity and sense of belonging I can relate to the way that the community views the world based on my own experience. I don’t know how that would feel if I moved to one of those places myself and was no longer part of the community I grew up in. Whilst many of my friends are not ‘from here’ and I spend my life raging against xenophobia I am a bit self conscious that I identify with the place I live and grew up as so one who has roots here.
I live less than ten miles from the Tweed Valley and have an EWS stage as one of my commuting options.
I live in the village I do because houses in Traquair or Kirkhouse are too expensive, Innerleithen is too big and Peebles is both too big and too expensive
So I'm in the right area, close enough for me. For my budget this is spot on.
However I do also believe there are many people who don’t have any choice over where they live.
For some people it’s a battle to survive each day.
I guess my point was those people might feel trapped in their current situation, and eg it might (appear to) make financial sense to stay where you are, but if they wanted to (ie. The personal weightings they apply to their situation) they could choose to move. I get that for many people that might mean massive compromises - life a smaller house, flogging their fleet of bikes etc! Obviously there will be mortgage tie in periods etc that make it painful to move but they are short lived so the balance might not be there to move today but it might be in a year or two. I’m well aware of people living hand to mouth and struggling just to exist. To some extent they’ve less to risk from a radical move. I’m not saying they should, their situation, their decision.
I live where I do because it’s where me and my mum and brother moved when my mum got together with the bloke who eventually became my step-dad. I’ve now lived here over fifty years, and it’s my home. It was a council house and I bought it nearly thirty years ago, and honestly I’d find it very difficult to part with it. I could probably get around £250k for it, but I’d have to find double that or more the find somewhere with a bigger garden anywhere in the area.
It’s M4 corridor, all the main north/south, east/west transport routes go through and around the town, including the main GWR London/Bristol line, so A420, A4, A350, A429 north of the M4 up to Cirencester and Warwick, so a desirable area.
And it’s where Jo died, three years ago today, so there’s part of her here, I couldn’t bear to move anywhere else now.
their situation, their decision
So often, for many people, there really is no choice. There is no decision for them to take. A move would be making them voluntary/intentionally homeless, with routes back to accommodation blocked by rules and finances.
I needed a job. My criteria was north of Chesterfield and south of Perth. Main line railway station. Maybe on the coast. First job that met the criteria was Edinburgh.
One in Edinburgh leith or gorgie was affordsble and within cycling distance of work.
I live less than a mile from the house I mostly grew up in. Four miles from what was for over a century the family farm in Stirlingshire. While I have relatives in England, Spain, USA, and Canada most of my family live within 20 miles of here.
My relatives that live in England left Scotland to get a better job. I was able to work locally so no reason to leave. It helps that I live in a local area with nice people, low crime, and with easy access to a city for healthcare etc.
My sister lived in Canada for 20 years before coming back. I met her this morning for a coffee. Turned out the last time she was in the building where the cafe is was before 1980 when it was the local library. In between it was a social club for the local football team. Now a dog friendly cafe. I suppose being aware of the history of places like that is part of the sense of home.
I suspect that for most people it is work choices that drive where they end up living.
Didn’t have a choice what with witness protection and all that
Combination of immediate access to hills and on and off road riding, walking, climbing, running, access to local shops, access to friends and a pleasant community and a big city, in this case, Manchester, 30 minutes away by public transport. Oh, and the macro equivalent of putting the kettle on, sticking some bread in the toaster and kicking back on a comfy sofa - it feels like home.
I'm sure I could live in any number of places that fit those basic criteria and having grown up in that London, I made choices to escape from being entombed in concrete.
That said, geography is over-rated. It's a bit like the 'one true love' model of romance.Clearly most people could be tolerably happy with any one of many potential partners to varying degrees and 'perfection' is partly in the mind. This place would be better if it rained slightly less, but nine months in the Andes taught me a quiet appreciation for variable weather, days that shorten and lengthen with the seasons and green hills.
I can imagine that if you start off with some idealised checklist of location criteria, it could make you quite miserable in the short term at least.
Glad its not just me, I feel the same putting a bike in a car to go and ride it just feels very wrong.
On the flip side, I spent 19 years pretty much doing 99% of my riding in Calderdale because it was the easy option - most of which were quick 2 hour rides from the doorstep before breakfast/after tea etc. Yes its a bit of extra faff having to chuck stuff in the van and drive but its opened up loads of options. Can pretty much point the van in any direction and within 30 mins or so be in a variety of different places - the Moors, Dalby for its weather proof trail centre stuff & ace off piste, Yearsley, Sutton Bank area, back to Calderdale, Leeds Bike Park, the Dales etc. Definitely nice to be almost forced into riding different places...
Slightly different to most here but I moved to Manchester 25 years ago and still love it. I love the big city and everything that goes with it and still get a kick out of going out round town and getting amongst it.
On the other hand I can definitely see the attraction of living in the countryside but all our friends are here in Manchester so I'm not sure if there'll ever be a day where we think yeah lets just totally up-sticks somewhere else- as much as road or mountain biking and trail running straight from the door sounds pretty amazing.
Not sure. Maybe the grass is greener etc? At 20 I moved to North Wales for college and stayed. At 30 I moved to the north of Stoke for a PGCE , a woman, a job and a new career. At 37 I moved back home to the FoD. Great in some ways. Family (aging) here, old friends etc. However I hate what I see the Forest turning into. It's becoming a big holiday park. Solitude has gone, the woods are trashed and everywhere has been developed. I never understand why people come to a place for something then proceed to ruin just that. Doubt I'll move though.
I'm very happy where I am (Peak District), but I spent a little bit of time in the Pyrenees in October last year, and if I was going to live somewhere else, I'd be a bit tempted. Better weather, actual mountains, feels like more exploring possibilities, not too far away, or too removed from civilisation.
I’m not ready for the provincial attitudes (grew up in a small village) and lack of choice in small towns/villages so we still live in London where our work is. We both like what we do and are fortunate to have a 6th floor flat that overlooks mature oaks and a woodland nature reserve so when working at home I’m distracted by raven and peregrine spotting.
have friends locally who mostly work in the arts/media and have similarly moved slightly further out to find the right balance. One thing we were not counting on was the other residents here who are all sound people who are happy to help out and look out for each other, something I hadn’t experienced in other parts of London.
A good mix of young families and ‘interesting’ professionals, actors, architects, furniture makers etc.
Richard Ayoade used to live in our flat, it’s a popular area for arts/media types.
Couldn’t think of anywhere else I would want to move to apart from a lottery win house a few mins walk away, it’s going to be hard to find somewhere to move to once we retire, I’m not sure if it will be in this country.
ride less MTB these days and am about 25min ride away before I hit the decent roads/hills, more natural wine bars than I can drink in and one of the best bakeries in London on my doorstep, only downside is I’m a little bit too far from Jay Rayners favourite chippy Ken’s in Herne Hill.
Born in Norf Lunden and spent 40 years there in suburban hell, the worst of all options, no benefits of being central and tons of traffic.
Hoped to move to South Devon where my then partner is from but that wasn't an option work wise at the time, spent a weekend at a friend's in Stroud, Gloucestershire where work was an option and just took the gamble to get out of London (son was 5yo) and if Stroud didn't work out try for Devon later.
13 years later and we are still in Stroud and I'm really happy with the location.
I rarely leave Stroud's 5 valleys and consider it home, it's fantastic here, quaint and pretty with amazing views.
All my cycling is straight from the doorstep.
Having just spent the day on the Otago Peninsula NZ, here definitely here, it's like the Gower but much better & with Dunedin at one end not cut off from civilization either. However I'm at the wrong end of my expected lifespan so will have to stick with UK unless we win the lottery 😕 Did plan on buying my wife's parents place in Corsica (Brexit put a stop to that) only very small & relatively cheap place at £100k but we could have lived there 9 months of the year & let it out in the busy & silly hot summer. Never mind we are still planning on moving from where we are a) because I only bought it so my dad could move in & b) we definitely want to live somewhere else, despite all our family being close by.
I really like it where I live.
It's clean, no garbage on the streets and very little, if any, graffiti. Everything works as it should, roads are fixed and not potholed at all. The local council are on the front foot and telling me things pertinent to me that I need to know and they are responsive if I want something. Doctor and dentist and I can get an appointment within a couple of days. Neighbours are great and open to forriners. No issues.
Within a few hours I can get to 6 or so countries with trains that work or the car. Good local riding, food and stuff can be bought direct off the farm. Good recycling and environment to live in.
Not all roses but there are a stack of upsides to it. Southern Black Forest, Germany. Made it out here a year before Brexit. I've no pull to return to the UK. Very happy here and happy with the move.
I loved living in the Basque country (10 years). Unfortunately aging, ill parents meant me and the OH needed to come back to England. Moved a bit around the North of England but now found a really good place for us. Cloughton, a village on the border of Scarborough/North York Moors. We've got proximity to countryside, decent pub, facilities, transport, parents and we both work from home.
Re reading the q, it isn't about where you live. It is about your reasons for wanting to live somewhere (which may or may not be where you actually live).
So whilst we are happy in an almost trendy Cardiff suburb, personally I quite fancy the mid Wales hippy belt. Good riding, more nature, nice seaside and more Cymraeg for the Mrs.
Came to Manchester (Salford) for university and stayed, because of the nightlife etc and found work. Now still here because I managed to get on the ladder and kids etc. would need a good reason to move now and my dad and in-laws are within driving distance (riding distance!) so sticking.
@JR. I’m in Crystal Palace SE19, the southern end of the Dulwich estate