Best place to raise a family in New Zealand or Australia…?

[Mornnb]

Well, I would say it's a matter of how wealthy you are, if you're rich, Sydney no question!
If you're not very wealthy, I'd probably go with Brisbane, it's a bargain, a great city and the countries 3rd largest city. So it's size means you have good access to quality jobs and universities. It's just an hour from the Gold Coast as well, with a lower cost of living than Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
Here are the major cities average house prices.
Sydney $550,000
Melbourne $483,500
Perth $453,000
Brisbane $425,000
Adelaide $387,000

[wanneroo]

Originally Posted by ScooterPilot

But perhaps that well has run dry now. This thread has certainly lasted longer than I ever thought it might, and has been very useful to us with it's wide array of fantastically informative posts.

Thanks again to all who have taken the time to share their insight on this subject.

I think it's rather that it's time for you to find context in all the things you've heard about by starting to experience them in person. People could continue to list dozens of suburbs and towns and it only still provide one dimension and it doesn't really help you any further.

The best thing is to travel down there with what information you have and go from there. That will provide another dimension of understanding, you will answer some questions and will find new questions to ask and then probably people here will able to help you even more as you journey down that path of discovery.

You have limited choices anyways as Australia only has a few large cities and metro districts with population, such as Cairns or the Gold Coast.

[Bruins_Fan]

Interesting thread. Begs the question...any closer to a decision, ScooterPilot?