Moving to Manchester

We are going to move to Manchester and we would like to know good living areas. We are Scandinavian based family. We have two kids (14+16) and of course they need good school (high school and middle school). My job will be in south from Manchester and we prefer to live that area but not farway from downtown. Any suggestion?

Welcome to Manchester fellow scando. Not able to recomend schools, but some areas to look at would be Trafford, Wilmslow and Warrington. The latter 2 are some way out of the town, but decent areas apparantly. closer to town there are Chorlton and Disdbury (West didsbury is somewhat nicer than east Didsbury I'd say). Chorlton has alot of young professionals and couples with kids around, so possibly a good place to find schools and people of a similar social stature. It seems to be where alot of people move to from the city centre once they have settled down with a wife/husband and a child.

1 question I have would be the sort of house price range/budget you have to play with? There are some very nice areas on the outskirts of Manchester, and some very rough and ugly areas too..sometimes, right next to each other. Also, it could be good to know what type of house you're looking for, or could you live in a flat? English homes are extremelly different to your average scandinavian family home..everything is quite small here.

Hope that helps.