pvhc

Hi everyone

I am new to this, so hope I am doing this right.

I have been offered a job in Armadale (wa)and now need to find a nice place to live. I have two children age 10 and 11 and my husband will be looking for a job when we move.

We are happy to commute.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

EvannTel

Me? I'd go up into the hills. Armadale is nt the best pace to be by a long shot. Moving into better burbs nearer town is pointless as you pay premium for town you won't use. Yep hills for me!

pvhc

Sorry, what do you mean by hills.
thanks

Dorothy

Hills (n). A naturally raised area of land, not as high or craggy as a mountain.

Have you done any research into Perth area at all? Have you thought about where you would like to live? Do you want to be by the ocean or on the river or inland or rural or city, etc? Are you looking to spend $300/wk on rent or $2.5 million to buy?

Some information from you would go a long way toward helping with your search.

Bibbs

Agreed.

Armadale itself is rough, had a bad reputation years ago and some areas have got worse.

I'd be looking at Mt Nasura (where I grew up), Roleystone etc.

renth

Hills are beautiful but OP better make sure he mugs up on bushfires and what do do when one happens.

Bibbs

Punch the local copper, before he uses a grinder in the middle of summer?

Japonica

Exactly. The hills are gorgeous but a lot of those homes have one road in or out.

h2oskineil

Hi There and welcome to the forum.

Your at the start of a long road, lots of info can be found using the 'search' button at the top of the page.

Here's some info on suburbs
Average house prices = http://reiwa.com.au/Research/Pages/P...by-suburb.aspx

Suburbs = http://www.aussiemove.com/wa/perth

School will be important with a 10 & 11 years old.
Public schools - Generally you need to reside in the catchment area (details and maps are on the school websites)

Public schools free - Apart from the yearly fee's and uniform
Private schools - Are not free (there's a shock) and often long waiting lists.

Find a school here.
www.myschool.edu.au/ (Great source of info)

Find a public school Dept of Education - http://www.det.wa.edu.au/schoolsonline/home.do

Do a Google search for Private schools if required. Fee's etc will be on the website - Call them to check the waiting list.

Housing - Do plenty of research, search for rentals and the weekly price (see what you can afford and carefully check the suburb) prices are generally per week. Make sure you are in the catchment area for the school of your choice.
Rentals can be hard to find and there is a lot of competition (reportedly) Others may offer more $'s per week to secure the home... you may have to do the same? (Just be prepared)
www.realestate.com.au
www.reiwa.com.au

Good luck with the research.
Cheers
Neil.

chrisall

Hi, I'm currently in Armadale temporarily (long story), been here a couple of months now. The place has a terrible reputation, I don't know if it's *that* bad, but it is undeniably a rough area. I won't go into the town centre after dark and I certainly wouldn't want to bring my kids up here. Having said that I often go into town during the day on a weekend and it's perfectly ok for the usual shopping, decent library, cinema etc. It's about 35mins on the train to Perth CBD...just need to keep your wits about you at night as the Armadale line passes through some other rough suburbs & some pretty strange people seem to come out after dark! No problems during the morning/evening commute, other than the train gets packed by about Kelmscott.

As for places to live; the hills are nice, as others have pointed out. I quite like the area around Serpentine dam myself, been up to the Elizabethan pub & it's ok...just bear in mind how far away you would be from the CBD though as I doubt if you'd go into Armadale much other than for work.

I have no idea what your budget is - for anywhere half-decent you'll be looking at $500/week minimum. I think the current vacancy rate is under 2% so masses of demand fuelling completely rip-off rents. Saying that, Armadale has one of the lowest median house prices of all Perth suburbs (for a reason mind) so c. $350 week would get you a 3x1 here. Personally I'd be looking for somewhere closer to the CBD...if you want to stay on the Armadale line for ease of commute maybe think about Vic Park, Burswood, that sort of area perhaps? Personally I wouldn't go much further SE than that.

Cheers,
Chrisall

eddie007

If you're working in armadale then byford is nice.... And the semirurals inbetween