Please help me Essex people!!

I am biased and would say Colchester as its down the road from me

I know £250k seems alot but in chelmsford, being that close to London , you wont get much for your money, but further out, say Colchester, you will get significantly more and its only an extra 20-25mins on the train!!!!!!!!!!

I think the best thing you can do is decide how far you want to travel and how much you want to spend on trains, that gives you a short list of places to look. Places like Braintree and coggeshall are lovely and villagey, further south Essex like Brentwood and ongar are nice too, then places like up upminster and aveley are even further south...however, they will all be similar travelling times and nice places to live. You should find a decent house for the money too. X

I've just had a look on rightmove and you can find quite a few houses for that price in wickford, it's closer to London and has a high street we have a few friends who live there. Or witham which is between Chelmsford and colchester.

Romford area is quite an affordable (more up and coming than Chelmsford) it currently has good links to Liverpool Street including a fast train service.

It's also probably a good time to buy in the area as it will be on the new 'crossrail' network which will improve transport links further which usually results in an increase in house prices.

Have you looked into Braintree? 15mins from Chelmsford inbetween colchester x

We relocated to Essex a few years back for my OH's job and love it here! You'd definitely get more for your money in Colchester but it is nice there and the commute isn't too bad if he isn't too far out of Liverpool Street. As others have said Braintree and Witham are good calls too. Wickford is definitely worth a look - you'd get more for your money than Brentwood/Billericay/Chelmsford but the train links are still pretty good. That said though you get the odd areas in Billericay/Brentwood that are cheaper and still really lovely.

Would renting at first be an option? Great way to get a better feel of an area and working out what areas you like/whether the commute is doable without totally committing before you know what it's like.

We have been contemplating doing this, buying a property is a big commitment and we do not want to rush into anything. Like you said it would be a good idea to try out living somewhere first before buying.

Thanks for your help everyone -l am going to go on a big Zoopla / Right move / Prime Location binge! Does anyone know Southend that well? I would love to live by the seaside...

Essex rules! I moved to Brentwood from Slough (lucky me) three years ago, and I absolutely love living here.

When I was moving, I wanted to be near the motorway so that my parents journey to come and visit me was easier and vice versa, so we only looked around Harold Wood and Brentwood (can't afford Shenfield!).

However, now I am a bit more settled, we would happily move a bit further out to Billericay or Chelmsford, although we wouldn't go much further than that. We both commute into London, and if we are lucky enough to have a family, I don't want too much of a journey if I go back to work.

Personally, I think places like Colchester and Braintree are too much of a commute getting into London, especially if it's not something your boy is used to. Braintree isn't as far but trains there aren't as regular (CB will confirm how regular they are). Without trying to sound like a martyr, commuting isn't easy nor fun and an extra 25 mins is a fair amount. Plus you'll also need to take in to account the extra costs - I just looked and an annual season ticket is £1k more from Colchester than from Chelmsford. And at £4.5k, I am pretty sure that's more than the amount you can get an interest free loan from work for.

And the answer is irregular! Don't move to braintree if you're going to be commuting! Trains are a nightmare, 1 an hour (1 every 45 mins at peak), super expemsive and they are always the first to be cancelled as its a single track line. Colchester is doable but too far IMO.

I would be looking at Chelmsford, Witham, Brentwood, Wickford areas (Witham and Wickford being much smaller towns than the other two)

Southend is a possibility, friends of mine commute from leigh, rayleigh and Hockley (all near Southend) and their commute isn't bad into London.

I am also biased where Colchester is concerned. If it wasn't for the boys we would move there in a flash. Mr Ska commuted Colchester to London for quite a few years and his brother has just moved back to Colchester from Surrey. He commutes too.

Just to answer the commuting side of things - I LOVE Maldon (heybridge) but it would be a nightmare commute as no train station!

Marks tey and kelvedon both have train stations but they are less frequent

Yep the nearest are Chelmsford or Witham

my mum lives in Maldon right next to the prom. I love it!

I might in a couple of years, we may move there!

Yeah we thought our budget was achievable for a 3 bedroom house around Chelmsford. But the majority of estate agents we have contacted have been very unhelpful. Despite the fact we are not in a chain and have a mortgage agreed in principle. We ring to find out if somewhere is still on the market, we then get told either someone will ring you back (they don't) or they say "it has gone, bye". On Monday l tried to ask if they had any similiar properties and was snootily informed there were few properties around Chelmsford with 3 bedrooms for that price. Hmmm they clearly don't know the market because there are and we are going to visit 4 on Saturday...

Where is good for a bite to eat and going out in the evening around Chelmsford please?

I'm in the Southend area. 5 minute walk from Westcliff station.

You'd be able to get something well with in our budget here but it's 45minute train journey into London.

Feel free to ask me any more questions!

Ahh my OH grew up in Billericay and his family still live there! It's sooo lovely, we want to move to essex in a year or two and end up in Billy eventually so this thread is really useful.

Back on topic: What about Brentwood? There are some nice areas there and reasonably priced houses although I don't know much about transport links there I'm afraid, although who needs transport when you can mix it up with the TOWIE crowd there and go dahn the Sugar Hut!

We looked at houses in Chelmsford but could only afford the houses that were a trek to the train station - over 35minutes walk. So we looked to Colchester that is further out by an extra 20mins by train and got a house 12mins walk to the station. Perfect for us as the area we're in is on the edge of town with a countryside feel and got a three bed house for £185k (6 years ago). For £250k around here you could get a lot of house! I'm pretty sure you could manage to get somewhere in Chelmsford for that, although it may not be too close to the station.

There are fast trains that all start from or go through Colchester into Liverpool street. (50mins). Some stop at Stratford where you can get the tube from if there are train disruptions, but if you went on to Liverpool street it's 1 hr. if you got the train from Colchester to Liverpool street that stops at Chelmsford your looking at a few mins more but it's all roughly around the hour mark. It all depends how long you can stick out the commute daily vs the size of house and area you get to live in. I have a few friends that live in 1 bedroom basement flats costing over £300k but they're in the city and love it.

As a guide - A friend of ours has just bought a 1960s four bed town house in Billericay for £266k but it needs a lot of work. Billericay is only half hour to Liverpool street. If you went Southend direction, there's the other option of the c2c line into fen church street.

I have lived in Brentwood for three years and I've never been (and probably won't).

Transport is fine...it's a slow train, although you can now go one stop back to Shenfield and then get a fast train into London. Takes on average 35 mins I would say. It's also close to the M25.

House prices are OK but on the more expensive side. We have a two bed end of terrace, with a garden, garage, parking, and we bought it three years ago for £233k.

Ha ha just jesting, I know people like that in Essex are the minority. I would only go to the sugar hut out of good old curiosity!

I've just moved across the border into Essex, Waltham Abbey. Close to j26 on the M25, walk/cycle/bus to Waltham Cross into Liverpool Street.

3 beds £230k - £280k... Some gorgeous Victorian cottages in there too!