Advice Urgently Needed on Rotherham Please!

Hi

We are a young family and are definitely moving to the Sheffield area. We came up for a visit last week and found that Rotherham is generally more affordable than Sheffield which means we could get a bigger house for our money. We had a look around (including a night drive) and thought most of it seemed nice. Is this really the case or did we catch it on a rare good day?

Can anyone advise me where the good areas are and more importantly which areas to avoid. We are looking to live in a safe low crime area, close to amenities, public transport and local shops and it would be nice to see some green from our window (I'm a tree freak!!). Our budget is around £75k.

I have noticed some ridiculously cheap houses in Rawmarsh - why is this area so cheap? I have been advised to look at Brecks, Broom, Bramley and Wickersley which we did but Bramley seemed a little rough - is it rough or did we drive in the wrong bit? Broom seemed nice but predominantly asian - I am not a racist at all but we have lived in a similar area before and we got racial abuse for being white. Would this be the case there?

Also as we would need to rent before we buy so what is the rental market like there?

Pleeeaaaasssee help!

Thanks!

Jo

I wouldnt move to Rawmarsh if i were you, the schools round there arent too good. The primary school was where they sent all the kids from our primary school that wouldnt behave themselves and rawmarsh comprehensive doesnt have a good track record at all as a lot of people from rawmarsh travel other schools miles away, although I must say Ive been there many times and not experienced any crime or anything. Its also close to Parkgate which is expanding every day and has some OK shops. You could try Swinton, there are some OK houses round there. Wath has a good school, but there are parts that are really run down though the centre is nice and it does have parts that are ok. Whiston is nice too, bits of it are quite rural looking and there are some nice houses. Moorgate is generally thought of as the best area but houses are around 300k there, so areas round there are generally best such as Wickersly and Stag (Stag is mainly lined with trees if you like them but as for greenery theres not much in rotherham)

personally i'd avoid rotherham, but if your budget won't allow you to you could try looking at Wentworth which is a small rural village outside of Rotherham towards Barnsley. I'd also definitely avoid Rawmarsh since you mention it. There are reasons behind the pricing of houses.