[renew]

how much should we be budgetiing for a 3/4 bed house in commuting distance to lower hutt?
Are there any areas that are best avoided?

[jess]

There are so many different price ranges in that area, that it's hard to give you a figure. Really depends on the area. For example:
Taita 3 bed home with 2 baths $325K (http://www.open2view.com/Property/156577)
Woburn 3 bed home with 2 baths $745K (http://www.open2view.com/Property/153660)

As to areas, I'm a big fan of Korokoro myself.

This older thread (http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=50) has lots of info on different suburbs in Welly and Hutt.

[IanW99]

Are you talking about renting or buying?

And how far you would consider for commuting distance and what you would like to live near to and type of accomodation e.g. townhouse, lifestyle block etc?

For example, I would say that any of the Wellington suburbs are within commuting distance of lower hutt.

A good idea of prices can be got from trademe or open2view and other threads detail good and not so good suburbs

Ian

[sarahw]

It really depends what you're looking for - a house with a view can go for a lot more than a house without & the same design of house, same size can go for different prices if on a different street within the same suburb - for example we live in Paremata (Porirua area) & if our house was on a particular road in our suburb (we can see it from our lounge) it would cost around $100-200K more than it does on this road. I'm not joking!

Basically - if you find the cheapest suburbs in the district that you're looking at they're likely to be the areas to avoid for various reasons - distance from the city, views (or lack of) and desirability of area, whether or not they have good schools, transport links etc... Areas at the top end of the pricerange are usually that for a reason - e.g. Eastbourne v. desirable to live in. Those in the mid brackets are usually v. nice & liveable.

Don't know the Hutt loads but my fave areas out there are Eastbourne, Maungaraki, Belmont Hills. All very close to Hutt City but nicely located. (I personally wouldn't want to be further in Upper Hutt but you do get more for your money there - only reason is that where the SH1 breaks off from SH2 (motorway leaving Welly) if there is a traffic jam its usually going up the Hutt rather than up the coast.)

Nothing beats actually driving around the areas and getting a feel for the suburbs and streets within those suburbs that you'd like to live in.

Good luck with the search!

[renew]

Are you talking about renting or buying?

And how far you would consider for commuting distance and what you would like to live near to and type of accomodation e.g. townhouse, lifestyle block etc?

For example, I would say that any of the Wellington suburbs are within commuting distance of lower hutt.

A good idea of prices can be got from trademe or open2view and other threads detail good and not so good suburbs

Ian

To start with we would be renting but with the view to buying after a few months.

[IanW99]

For checking out rentals (or buying houses for that matter) try the following links:-

trademe (http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-me-property/index.htm)
open2view (http://www.open2view.com/)
realestate (http://www.realestate.co.nz/rental)

Ian