moving near southampton with 2 young children (crime, house prices, neighborhoods)

[runchick1]

hello, my family is going to be moving from washington dc to the UK at the end of the year for my husbands work. he'll be working outside of southampton so that's the general area of my focus, but i have no idea where to start looking to live. lymington and brockenhurst have been recommended to me as good places to start. one of my children will be starting preschool in the fall, so i also have questions about school as it relates to where we will live.
we'd like to live in a house and prefer neighborhoods with places for the kids to play outside (as opposed to city living).
any recommendations would be GREATLY appreciated. i have never been to the UK before!
thank you

[Brontosaurus]

This is a good place to start your research Brockenhurst house prices, property, crime rate, local neighbourhood & schools | UpMyStreet

[Jezer]

Southampton is like the curate's egg- good in parts. There are some none too great parts and some very desirable parts with lots in between- same as many places.

The areas of Brockenhurst and Lymington in the New Forest, where I live, are very expensive and bear in mind that house prices in the UK are pretty high anyway. That said they are none too far from the west side of Southampton.

Southampton is not alone in being a busy place to commute through, so an indication of where your husband's workplace is might help us and help you.

I rarely go into the town, as I'm not a town person, but my wife is dragging me along to the large shopping area called West Quay on Friday. It's a popular destination which includes a good upmarket store, part of a national chain, called John Lewis.

[Hengist]

On the east side of town, Netley and nearby villages are OK, and connected to rail.

OFTSED school reports can be found by clicking on a property's map on Rightmove.