Moving to ChCh, where do we live???

Hmm, well the Woolston side of town isn't in the best of shape. We lived over there at one point (pre earthquake) and commuted to the other side and it's not the smoothest commute. I mean, not horrible, but some busy roads there.
The Riccarton to Hornby side of town is pretty much intact post-earthquake (so Riccarton, Upper Riccarton, Avonhead, Sockburn, Hornby). Papanui, Fendalton and Merivale are a bit hit or miss, though mostly ok. They were/are considered more upscale suburbs and prices can be a bit higher. Riccarton/Ilam has a lot of student housing but is otherwise not a bad place to live. Linwood is probably not in the greatest of shape, but is on the Woolston side of town. It does have some dodgy areas, but it's really street by street. In that vein avoid Bromley, Phillipstown, Bexley and so on. That South/Southeastern side of town isn't in great shape and a lot of the neighbourhoods were not great to begin with. Woolston itself can be ok though.
Addington is a little industrial but otherwise in reasonable shape and fairly central. Not sure what shape Cashmere is in (was a sort of hilly suburb), but would be good to commute to Woolston as would any of the other suburbs south of 73 (Spreydon, Sydenham, Waltham, Hoon Hay etc).
If you are looking farther north, Belfast and Redwood are both very nice as well (and I don't think too expensive). I've driven through Kaiapoi and Rangioria within the past few months and they look ok (post-earthquake), but not sure about prices/whatnot up there.
No idea on current prices, we rented our current 3br about a year ago in Hornby for $350/wk and we probably are getting a good deal, though pre-earthquake that would have been about average to high.

Sorry for the novel. Just we've rented 4 different places here in the last 4ish years (happy where we are now) so have learned loads about the suburbs in the process.

rentals are coming very hard to come by indeed so to be honest i would just go with what you can . i know of several families lately that have been looking for rentals and there are anywhere between 20-100 people at each veiwing and there budgets have all been around the $300- $450 a week mark. it really is getting a bit out of hand . what i personally consider to be good family friendly areas within that budget would be Hoonhay , bishopdale, Spreydon, Halswell, somerfield, cracroft, barrington , lower cashmere , St martins, Belfast, Redwwod , Beckenham, burnside .... places away from the damage. i lived in the red zone for 10mths after the sept quake and it was not fun at all, the roads are still a mess, sewerage is still a big problem in many areas and well to be honest its quite depressing over that side of town, I am now in Hoonhay (on the other side of town) and its a different world over here , for the most part you wouldnt even know there was an earthquake . when you have a date i  mind start looking and applying straight away , you might get lucky and get a house easily but i think most families are taking a good 1-3 months before they find a house they even get accepted for . the demand is just so high.

 

Good luck with the move tho and i really do hope you find something

Edited by julz85

if u can find a place in halswell, burnside upper riccarton. i know those areas are in good shape we lived in burnside up until 6weeks ago and only felt quakes that were bigger than a 4.0 and we didnt get any damage and none of our stuff got damaged.
my parents live in halswell and had minimal damage to their stuff couple of things fell over and broke and had alittle bit of damage to the house but nothing structural.