jessc11

I have been on the homely website religiously for the past 6 months, trying to get some insight on where to move in Brisbane. We have moved from country Victoria and arrived here in Crestmead 3 days ago. From what I can tell so far, socially, it's all about "where you live" in Queensland. Crestmead has a bit of a bad reputation, which was confirmed by our electrician who connected our power on day 1. "Why did you choose CRESTMEAD!?" He exclaimed with a disgusted tone.
Well, for those of you unsure about where to live, here's why we chose this suburb.
1. House prices are within budget. My partner and I are 25 & 26 and we plan on buying somewhere around South Brissy within the next two years. We have come from a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom brick home with a two bedroom granny flat for $310 a week in Victoria. I was adamant that I wanted a single story 3 bedroom home when we moved to QLD and not an apartment (personal choice). 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom stand alone one story houses (not duplex) in great condition (new-ish) are insanely hard to come by under $450/$500 per week closer to the city. That's plainly far too much to spend per week when we are saving for a house. The house we have now is absolutely perfect, clean, tidy and quite nice for just $350 per week.
2. Job prospects for my partner. My partner is a factory worker and there are a LOT of factory jobs within a 30 minute drive from Crestmead. I work in administration and haven't had many issues finding job vacancies nearby either.
3. Were really not that far from the city. Being 30-40 minutes drive south east of Melbourne CBD and you'd still be in the city. Here, it's quite a country feel which is what I prefer. We have friends closer to Brissy CBD and on the Gold Coast, so I feel like here we have the best of both worlds as we aren't too far from either.

- Visual observations of Crestmead:
The suburb has its ups and downs. There are some really rough looking houses with rubbish and unkept lawns, but then will be surrounded by nice brick houses with perfectly maintained gardens, so it's not a consistent "ghetto" look. We have seen a lot of tradie vehicles outside of houses and assume there are a lot of young families living in the area. There are a couple of houses opposite us that look a little unkept/feral, however the entire street is insanely quiet overall. We have slept with our windows open each night and I'm yet to be woken by any noises, I have also tried to listen out for traffic leaving around 8am - 9am and I can't hear a thing. We have noticed that there is generally quite a multicultural population around Crestmead, but that's not a bother for us at all. House prices for purchasing are well within reason and we feel close enough to all types of shops in this area.
There are a lot of schools nearby which sends traffic into meltdown in the small residential streets, but that can be avoided by not driving here around school times if possible. We do not have children and will obtain full time work, so can't see it being a problem for us in the future.

There are not a lot of licensed venues around (from what I've seen so far), however if we were going "out" we'd be heading into the city or down to the Gold Coast, so I don't mind that. The train line is about a 15 minute drive, so keep that in mind if you're after public transport. I think it takes around an hour to get into the city, so if you're looking to work in the CBD, then maybe a suburb closer to the train line would be better for you.

If you can get by people's initial reaction of screwing up their nose when you say you live in Crestmead (personally I don't care, because I'm really happy with this area!) then I think you'd find that it really delivers everything you need.