Castleknock

jos_kel

Hi,
We are considering moving from leixlip to castleknock. Was originally considering lucan but would prefer to be on/near train line into Connolly.
We also have 1 4 year old son and planning another child.
We also believe our house would sell for 320k+ and our mortgage balance is 20k.
My question is.
1. Where would people recommend in Castleknock as good areas to live given the above details.
2. We were thinking the best approach would be to sell first, then bide our time renting to ensure we get exactly the house we're looking for. As this would be our third time buying (and last) we want to avoid being in a chain or having to buy within a timeframe.
Also we think that if we've everything lined up i.e. not in a chain and ready to go we could put in a bid lower than the asking price and have it accepted.
Jos

Baby01032012

The first question everyone is going to ask is your budget, income, savings, what kind of mortgage do you currently have, is it a tracker, have you spoken to your bank to see how much you could borrow. THEN when you know your budget go looking. Look on daft for the general area to see what types of house you are likely to get for your budget.
As you said you need to consider your 4 year old, you want a house you can live in for at least until he finishes school. Put him first, look at preschools.. He is probably already in his preschool year.. You need to consider where he will be going to school in September. And then plan around that.

jos_kel

Baby01032012 wrote: »

The first question everyone is going to ask is your budget, income, savings, what kind of mortgage do you currently have, is it a tracker, have you spoken to your bank to see how much you could borrow. THEN when you know your budget go looking. Look on daft for the general area to see what types of house you are likely to get for your budget.
As you said you need to consider your 4 year old, you want a house you can live in for at least until he finishes school. Put him first, look at preschools.. He is probably already in his preschool year.. You need to consider where he will be going to school in September. And then plan around that.

Thanks for the feedback, but I'd just like to get opinions on good areas in castleknock.
Just to flesh out more of the details.
Approx value of current house: 320k
Outstanding tracker mortgage: 20k
Salaries: 70k + 35k (wife will prob give up work if we have 2nd child)
Combined savings: 100k approx

beauf

Be aware that a the primary schools have waiting lists with admission policies, one of which (depending on the school) is you have to be resident in the catchment for X no of years. You might want to factor that in your location. Others its a first on the list.

Houses get more expensive the closer to Castleknock. But Castleknock station is actually near Blanchardstown Village. If it were me I'd want to live within walking distance on a train station in the area. Local traffic can be very bad.

You'd be better asking on the D.15 forum in Region forums above.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=993

Seems a lot of hassle to move not very far.

jos_kel

beauf wrote: »

Be aware that a the primary schools have waiting lists with admission policies, one of which (depending on the school) is you have to be resident in the catchment for X no of years. You might want to factor that in your location. Others its a first on the list.

Houses get more expensive the closer to Castleknock. But Castleknock station is actually near Blanchardstown Village. If it were me I'd want to live within walking distance on a train station in the area. Local traffic can be very bad.

Seems a lot of hassle to move not very far.

Thanks for that info.
Yeah I suppose you might say it's a lot of hassle to move not very far.
But I think it's more that there are things about are house that annoy us.
Such as it was built in the 70's and the previous owner had some quirky DIY ideas that probably haven't aged well.
Having said that the house has a lot of positives too.
So basically we could be moving down the road if we saw a house that interested us.
We didn't have a child when we bought our current house, so now we want to get our decision spot on with the next house.

jos_kel

jos_kel wrote: »

Thanks for that info.
Yeah I suppose you might say it's a lot of hassle to move not very far.
But I think it's more that there are things about are house that annoy us.
Such as it was built in the 70's and the previous owner had some quirky DIY ideas that probably haven't aged well.
Having said that the house has a lot of positives too.
So basically we could be moving down the road if we saw a house that interested us.
We didn't have a child when we bought our current house, so now we want to get our decision spot on with the next house.

Changing tack a little and thinking of lucan.
A little frustrating, as one poster alluded to earlier, if you're going to the hassle of moving, you need to be gaining something.
While the house we're in is OK eg spacious enough 3 bed semi-detached.
We want the same again plus
1. Warmer, current house was built in 70s, some rooms seem to be always cold eg kitchen, this despite investment of 10k in windows and possibly 5k dry lining and attic etc.
2. Would like 3 bed plus office space, currently office space is in a bedroom.
3. Larger sitting room and kitchen.

It's a bit frustrating because most houses up to budget of around 380k don't really solve the problems above.

I've seen houses in the 450k-500k range which are very nice and would be well worth the hassle of moving.
However, they're either 4 bed or 5 bed and/or large bedrooms.
Basically, we wouldn't mind trading bedroom size for living space and even a conservatory.
It's frustrating because to get what we want in terms of living space, it looks like we have to buy sleeping space that we don't want/need.

Rew

What about Dunboyne, though you have to change trains at Clonsilla.

beauf

Rew wrote: »

What about Dunboyne, though you have to change trains at Clonsilla.

Unless you need to be closer to the m50 I think I'd at least look at the options slightly further out. If nothing else to compare what your money buys further out. But it has to be near a train.