clan_campbell

Hi all

I wonder if any of you living in the northern suburbs of Sydney can help ?

I'm looking for somewhere for a family of 5, in the region og $800k AUD
that is within 15 minutes of Oxford Falls and quite close to the coast.

Is this achievable or am i being unrealistic ?
Given the location, typically how long would it take to commute into
Sydney CBD or North Ryde on a good day and on a bad day ?

Thanks

Neil

utopia

Hi Neil,

I am also looking at Sydney... but more around the 600 mark!lol
If it were 800 I would be a happy bunny indeed...

However I found these 2 sites quite good... just type in location and price etc... and they normally have tons of properties!

http://www.justlisted.com.au
http://www.realestate.com.au


Good luck and let us know how the search goes?

Sandra

Try out whereis.com for distances etc. http://www.whereis.com/
why within 15 mins of Oxford Falls? Can you not find something in that area for 800K?

I believe Narabeen, Frenchs Forest, Cromer Colleroy should all suit, In fact most of the areas near this on a map. I think you should be able to pick up something for 800, it will possible be older and/or not the latest fashion in a house but that will depend on what you are looking for.

North Ryde Commute in a car I hope cause the transport links are a little ropey east to west on the North Shore. We would even have to get two buses coming down the Mona Vale road to North Ryde. I would guesstimate an hour on a bad day in a car. CBD again you need to think car or bus, car will be quickest (30mins?) but will you have parking? You can look up the transport links on

http://www.sydneybuses.info/

or http://www.131500.info/realtime/default.asp

both are good for real information.

Cheers

clan_campbell

Thanks Sandra

my eldest son (15) really liked the school and for a 15 year old to say that
it has got to be a good thing ! It would surley help in our efforts to get settled !

So, I guess as his / our current journey time to school is about 15 minutes, and
as I wasn;t too fussed on the surrounding area, i'm looking for suggestions
of places to look at around that area. I dont want to have to commute (by whatever means) more than 30 minutes ideally, so would consider
being more flexible on the distance from school.

best regards

Neil

hubbard

if you are driving into the CBD parking costs $23 per day - pretty damn expensive over a year. Not to mention traffic congestion. Drive time - well I have a horse in Oxford Falls and drive up from Paddington and it takes 40 minutes with no traffic outside of rush hour so I would imagine in rush hour you would be looking at 1 hour to 1 hour and a half depending upon any accidents and the same back in the evening - choose a place that has public transport links to the CBD otherwise the parking costs, fuel costs, toll costs and traffic will become a major headache in no time.

utopia

I must say I didn't enjoy my experience on the Sydney Trains last September.
A journey that should have taken 40 min or so I was told took over 1 hour.. it was from Regents park to Circular Quay..

Myself and my husband have alot of research to do once out in Sydney, just getting on at different locations around Sydney and time ourselves into the CBD...

Fun ahead me thinks, and lots of sandwiches pre-prepared

Sandra

So will you be in the IT industry, either North Ryde or CBD or both? The trip to Oxford Falls is going to be a bit of pain as you are going to have to go there and then come back unless you make it part of your journey, which means living out towards Narabeen, Warriewood and coming that way in.

Do you like lots of shops and busy stuff or quieter/dead suburbs - what are you looking for in a neighbourhood. How close to the beach?

For your commute to the CBD/Ryde but still North Shore I would rate East Killara/Pymble/Gordon possibly St Ives - but none of these are really going to suit the school that much. I do not know Davidson,Belrose but some of the others on here do - maybe be specific about the burb you are looking at for more detailed advice. I know one lady on here commutes by car to the city from St Ives and takes about 30 mins each morning - she has paid parking near Darling Harbour.

I think the thing to work out is that regardless of how we all would like to commute less this is a very large city and the traffic can be a nightmare. Lots of people live on the central coast and commute down to the North Shore and City by car/train which can add a fair amount of pressure through the main routes. Pacific Highway etc. It can be a pain looking for a balance and possibly worth renting for a while to check out what it is really like. We moved to St Ives only because of schooling - we wanted to be in the same burb as the kids schools. Four years on My hubby works in Lidcombe (out past North Ryde) I work in the CBD, my daughter does to a school in Chatswood and my son is still at St Ives for another year. The burb is possibly a little quiet for teenagers in some ways but as a parent nearly perfect as the little buggers have little distraction .

Depending on your needs I am sure there is the perfect place for you in Sydney. What year will your son be going into, will he be year 11 with only two years to go?

Best of luck - keep asking the questions

Cheers

clan_campbell

hi, thanks for the info regarding parking costs etc - thats useful.
As another of my wishes was to only have one car for the family
rather than the two we have now, i'm going to have to look closely
at the public transport side of things !

Cheers

Neil

clan_campbell

Hi Sandra

Yep, IT industry it will be ! In terms of the trip to Oxford Falls, it will probably
be my wife who does the school run, although from the information I have from Oxford falls school,
they do provide a bus service from quite a few areas.

We will certainly be renting for the first 6 months to give us time to find a
suitable area for us. In terms of the type of suburb, well, we have a bit of a mixed bag
My eldest is 15 and we were told he would start in Year 10 in Jan 2007 - which interestingly was different to Perth
where we were told he would start in year 11 in Jan 2007 ?
We also have two younger kids of 4 and 2. We would like a fairly quiet suburb,
but one that is reasonable distance from things like parks, swimming pools, sports centres and shops etc.
I am a keen squash player, and have an eye on a squash club in Willoughby, so a 10-15 minute drive from there would suit me -
but i'm the lieast important in terms of priiorities !

I think that if we could be about 30 minutes or so from the coast that would be great.

Thanks for taking the time to reply !

Neil

lawlaw

You probably would not want to drive into city unless your work provided a car parking space, v expensive, also driving to city at peak times would well stress me out. I currently live in Mona Vale and I have to get the 7.15 bus in order to make sure I get to work in the city for 8.45. Although I dont really mind it, hubbie and I are looking at somewhere nearer the city, maybe a little more inland in order to get more for the money when our rental period expires. We will still want to be 20/30 mins from the beach though.

Sandra

Right I think I have some ideas - possibly not covering all of yours - but have a look at Roseville - East Side of the Pacific Highway. Great Public Transport, Fit walk to Chatswood station depending on your needs. You can look at the quieter streets East of Archbold Street. Also Roseville Chase, but I do not know this as well. Getting a little livelier North Willoughby. These are older burb areas but really have charm.

Artarmon and Willoughby have some nice streets - lots of partments too but not all over. If you go much further down though all the places are good you have a bit of a trek back to the school.

I was with PeopleSoft/Oracle so know the IT world a little. I think some of the bigger places do a bus from Chatswood to Ryde for the IT comuters.

I agree with all the rest without a car space I use publis transport to the city. But many of the Train stops come with decent some free parking eg Gordon, so you can drive to the station and train in from there, lots of people do this.

When does your boy turn 16 - my son is in year 11 he turned 16 only this May and is the youngest by far in his class which is a pain for him with social things like driving as most mates are now on their P plates and Tyler has only started L's. He is keeping up well academically but he is fairly bright.

Cheers

utopia

Hi Nick..

I have found the area Roseville, on the realestate link I gave you above...

There seems to be afew in your price range but they are 3 bedrooms... might be a push for a family of 5!

http://www.justlisted.com.au/sp/jlre...7&Image270.y=5

binbird

Might be worth a look at Forestville and Killarney Heights. We are a family of 5 and are currently house hunting and there seems to be property around the $800,000 mark in these suburbs. You are still less than half an hour from the beaches and positioned well for a commute into the city. Forestville would also be pretty convenient for getting to Oxford Falls.

Happy hunting!

Binbird

clan_campbell

Thanks for all this Sandra - much appreciated.

How long do you think it would take to drive from Roseville / Willoughby
to Oxford Falls during the school run time ?

I work as an Oracle DBA what did you do with Oracle ?

My son was only 15 in March, so I guess a year behind yours, will he be
fairly young in his year too then ?

Thanks

Neil

clan_campbell

Thanks Utopia - I'll take a look. Really need 4 bedrooms though !

Cheers

Neil