I’ve lived in Stretford for about 10 years now and we’re close to Trafford Park train station. I rarely use the station because even though it’s closer to my house, the tram runs much more frequently. It’s also a pretty grotty station and so are its immediate surroundings, but I do like Stretford itself. As you say, housing is much more affordable than the surrounding areas, we’ve got lots of really nice neighbours, I don’t see much antisocial behaviour, its close to the motorway, close to Salford Quays, is on the tramline and I think it is an area on the up (albeit slowly). The community takeover of the townhall, the sip club, events in Victoria park are all things that have happened since we’ve moved here and as first time buyers get more priced out of Chorlton and Whalley Range, I think they’ll migrate more to Stretford.
I think part of the reason for the slow pace of change is that people who live here tend to stay here for a long time. The lady in the elderly couple on the other half of our semi when we bought the house had lived there since 1949, our next door neighbour on the other side has been here since the 1960s and we bought ours from someone who was selling his childhood home after parents passing away. As such, the housing stock that comes on the market is often good, but in need of a lot of modernisation.
