I own a little place in Salisbury. I love it. Well... Do I love Salisbury?... Look I don't hate it. Did I love buying my first home at 25? You bet your ass I did!

Here is some info you might find useful...

I have a 30-45 minute commute to work (driving). My previous commutes from nice areas we 1-1.5 hours. So in all not too bad. I work 5 min from the city and start at 8 so in peak it would be about an hour.

My place was 150k I have a good size 2 bedroom, neat and tidy, off of a main road in a small group. My neighbours are bogan but the worst thing they do is play music. My repayments are about 240 a week. So less than rent in some places, more than most share houses, but its mine.

If you are looking to buy a unit look for one in a small group and not multi story flats. Nothing worse than having people on top of you and even worse still if they are bogans.

I also find the advantage of a small group is the neighbours will look out for you. One of my neighbours tells me if someone has knocked on my door when I wasn't home. To some this might seem a creepy but he just sits and smokes out the front most days and keeps an eye on everything. Someone always offers to help if I'm in my garden or moving furniture and someone brings my bin in for me when I'm at work. It makes me feel safe, like I'm a part of a little community.

Check noise when you inspect a place -this is a good idea anywhere you buy however with a train line, an airport and all the main roads near Salisbury it can noisy in parts.

Some parts of Salisbury are nicer than others. Drive around the block and see what you think before you commit.

I have never had any issue in a shopping centre or any kind of venue in Salisbury. I worked in a bank in Salisbury for a few years and yes there were some deros but mostly I find the demographic in Salisbury to be young people who buy, working class families and retirees. I think these 3 groups would drastically outweigh the cennalink bogans. However the bogans are here and they are here to stay.

In all; no one would ever say that Salisbury is the nicest place to live but in this day and age it is so important to get your foot in the door of the housing market. I have found Salisbury to be safe, comfortable and downright pleasant. And I think having my own place outweighs the downside of it being Salisbury. 3 years on I have no notable complaints. I am looking at buying another place in a nicer area in a year or so another perk of low cost housing is you can get ahead on your mortgage and use the equity for another house.

Anyway that's my 2 cents worth.