Hello fellow Mustachians. I'm hoping you can provide me with some advice about a conundrum my family is facing.
First, a little background. I am a married woman, with two small children living in a northern midwestern city. My husband works full-time at the local university and I work part-time at a non-profit. We have a combined income of $130k. I'm very mustachian by nature and while my husband is less so he is willing to humor me in my personal finance pursuits. We have a pretty simple lifestyle: small house in the city, husband rides bike to work, we try to keep our consumption to a minimum.
There has been an increase in crime in our neighborhood the past few years and we want to sell our house and buy a new one somewhere safer with better school options. The issue we're facing is that we can't decide between two areas. The two areas we've narrowed it down to are:
1)A different neighborhood but still in the same city. This is a fantastic neighborhood with access to a lot of the things we enjoy doing, like proximity to bike trails and lakes, with great schools, good access to public transportation, and close enough to my husband's work that he can still bike. A decent home in this neighborhood will cost us from $250-300k.
2)A very small, very inner-ring suburb. This is a nice little suburb that for some historical reason was never integrated into city lines. The schools are great, it has decent public transportation options, and it's close to my husband's work so he can ride his bike. A nice home in this neighborhood will cost us from $200-250k.
While the second option is nice it is also a suburb: there are no sidewalks and there is really nothing in walking distance that we like to do, although we do have friends that live there which is a plus. So the question, is it better to pay more, about $50k, for a house in the perfect neighborhood or to pay less for the area that we still like but that will require more driving?
Thanks for you help.