Places to live in or avoid around Cambridgeshire...

[cj_eds]

Where are the best places to be buying a house or avoiding - within a decent commute of Cambridge? Its got to be cheap to!
Any potential hell-holes that should really be avoided?

[tjdixon911]

Well It depends how cheap you need?

Slight Run down of the areas I know;

Suffolk side of Cambridge;

Newmarket area - Pricey I guess an ave 2 bed terraced house, street parking £140-150k. Nice Town 15mins to cambridge.

Fordham/Soham area, a bit cheaper than Newmarket, slightly further away from Cambridge....

Burwell - Not bad, 15-20 mins from cambridge (back roads)

Red Lodge - Not the best but cheap, on the A11 I guess 20mins to Cambridge, lots of talk of redevelopment etc, lots of new houses being built. 15-20 mins to cambridge

Mildenhall - Very reasonable, good 2-3bed house/bungalow with off road parking for 120-130k, with proper drive/garage etc £140k. 20-25 mins to cambridge. Good facilities etc...

The other side of Cambridge, I beleive Huntingdon, St Ives, Fenstanton etc are fairly reasonable.

Don't know if this info helps at all??

[zippee]

St Neots is nice, decent sized market town. Currently their building a new by-pass from there all the way into Cambridge so the journey will be very quick once done. Reasonable house prices as well, 2 beds from 110-140, 3 beds up to 200k.
Cambourne is in between but a bit soulless.
If you want any specifics on St Neots let me know.
Huntingdon is a bit of a tip in comparison IMHO.

[cj_eds]

Any info helps thanks. For cheapness think 1st time buyer (not strictly true but does reflect the kind of money available!) so the prices and house sizes above are probably about right. So far had been looking at places North of Cambridge but trying to get an opinion on all areas.

[tjdixon911]

cj_eds said:

Any info helps thanks. For cheapness think 1st time buyer (not strictly true but does reflect the kind of money available!) so the prices and house sizes above are probably about right. So far had been looking at places North of Cambridge but trying to get an opinion on all areas.

This is a good example - www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-6135229.rsp?pa_n=3&tr_t=buy

[zippee]

Likewise around St Neots these are a couple of examples -
www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-7452806.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy
www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-10994945.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy

What sort of features are you looking for?
And when you say first time buyer I presume the 120-140k budget is correct or can you stretch to more? Might open up a couple more options such as this - www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-4447632.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy

[Tol]

What amenities are you after? The small towns near Cambridge are none of them without flaws, but there are some cracking villages...

PM me if you like, I've lived in and around Cambridge all my adult life, and spent about a decade policing the area too, so know the ins and outs of what goes on where...

Tol

[apache]

cj_eds said:

Any info helps thanks. For cheapness think 1st time buyer (not strictly true but does reflect the kind of money available!) so the prices and house sizes above are probably about right. So far had been looking at places North of Cambridge but trying to get an opinion on all areas.

I'm in South Cambs, Melbourn it's very nice and the prices haven't gone mental yet as they have in Buntingford

[cj_eds]

zippee - Thats the sort of numbers I'm looking at. Although I could stretch further I still want some sort of a life!

Amenities wise, something thats less than a 45 minute commute to Cambridge preferably with some form of regular public transport. Aside from that the usual things - somewhere decent to buy food, go drinking/watch footie and not full of gangs of kids!

Its easy enough to pick out places in budget, but not see easy to know what the area is like.

[lightningghost]

If you go right into Cambridge AVOID ARBURY!!!! Full of chavs!

[venom]

And one of my best mates. He's not a chav though, just a chav wannabe.

[mr noble]

Tol said:

spent about a decade policing the area too, so know the ins and outs of what goes on where... Tol

You don't know who knicked my new £1500 mountain bike from Perne Avenue the other night do you!


Living in Cambridge myself, I can say that it is a lovely place. (apart from those thieving ba5tards!)

Nice villages close to Cambs that give a good terrace or semi for the £150k mark. Be aware that driving into Cambs in the morning like most towns I guess is not fun and will take you 3-4 times as long as it would at say 11.30am insdtead of 8am!

Greg

[apache]

mr noble said:

Tol said: spent about a decade policing the area too, so know the ins and outs of what goes on where... Tol You don't know who knicked my new £1500 mountain bike from Perne Avenue the other night do you!

or my tools or my sons car?

[forthright MC]

i'll second St Neots. it is a lovely town, got a lovely riverside park, a good market on the market square every Thursday and there is a good selection of shops on the highstreet too. must be getting pretty popular round here at the moment as there's housing developments pretty much everywhere!

[Mekon]

Property in Cherry Hinton is reasonably priced, and there's no need to carry a knife like in Fulbourn or Arbury.

>> Edited by Mekon on Thursday 11th May 14:12

[MG Mark]

Although Huntingdon is not mentioned in the most favourable light above, I live there and it is worth a look - a market town like St Neots, with the river, but bigger. All the usual stuff in terms of shops from small to large in the town and big Tesco, Homebase, Office World etc on the outskirts. A lot of work has gone on recently and is going on to improve the town centre to get rid of the remaining '60s concrete planners cr*p. As well as Cambridge being relatively easily accessible (20-30 minutes outside peak times and the 30-40 minutes at peak times will get better with the planned guided bus route using the old railway line and the upgrade of the A14 to 3 lanes), house prices for modern estate houses are around the 150-180k mark for a 3-bed detached and 200-250K gets you a decent 4-bed detached. Towns/villages between Huntingdon and Cambridge are pretty good too, although the closer you get to Cambridge the prices go up. Other advantages - you are right at the cross roads of the A1 and A14, so travel by road to get north, south, east or west is pretty instantaneous. East Coast mainline train into London Kings Cross- 50 minutes. Birmingham NEC in under an hour. Silverstone 45 minutes away. All in all it's v. convenient for a heck of a lot of stuff.

MG Mark

[coco h]

I have lived in villages near Cambridge, Biggleswade and St Neots for 6 years. I find the villages can be very expensive - we sold a three bed semi with damp in need of renovation for nearly 200k about 2 years ago. But modern houses seem to be much better value. I like St Neots, St Ives, Huntingdon, Ely etc. I live 15 miles from Cambridge to the west and it takes 40 minutes + to get in for 8.30 - when we lived near Biggleswade the 25 mile journey on the A603 took 35 minutes!

[inky]

Hiya, I live in Bury St Edmunds about 20-25 minutes from Cambridge, (mind you that was in my Toyota Rav, havent timed the journey in my new TVR Tuscan ...) - lovely place to live but like everywhere, prices are not cheap. Average 2 bedroom terraced approx £140-£150,000. Like every area, you get what you pay for.
You have been given some good advice from previous people, but I have to agree about the journey into Cambridge, its a nightmare in the mornings.
Regards
Angela

[venom]

Mekon said:

Property in Cherry Hinton is reasonably priced, and there's no need to carry a knife like in Fulbourn or Arbury. >> Edited by Mekon on Thursday 11th May 14:12

Absolutely, I'm currently residing in Cherry Hinton, and can happily say it's a nice place to be. It has a few pubs, good facilities (Tesco Express, several takeaways, bakery, dentists, doctors, schools, a couple of hairdressers, tanning salon), and is a ten minute bike ride from Cambridge city centre.

Big up the CHinton massiv!

[lightningghost]

venom said:

Mekon said: Property in Cherry Hinton is reasonably priced, and there's no need to carry a knife like in Fulbourn or Arbury. >> Edited by Mekon on Thursday 11th May 14:12 Absolutely, I'm currently residing in Cherry Hinton, and can happily say it's a nice place to be. It has a few pubs, good facilities (Tesco Express, several takeaways, bakery, dentists, doctors, schools, a couple of hairdressers, tanning salon), and is a ten minute bike ride from Cambridge city centre. Big up the CHinton massiv!

And about 5 mins walk from the cinema

When's your car arriving?