Well a bit closer to the city centre is Balbriggan. We're both originally from the Northside of the city, but had to move further north to get a reasonably sized house to match our budget; we wouldn't have got a 1 bedroom apartment in our home areas with the money we had.
For your money, you could get a 4 bed 1300 sq ft end of terrace house in a local estate with €10K spare change. Or a 3 bed semi-d with about the same spare change.
The town is being rejuvenated at the moment, with some things coming online faster than others. For example, local issues include; the state of the link roads to the M1 and lack of seats on certain rush hour trains. However, a new cinema is due for completion by the end of the summer, the local supermarket is being extended, as it the hotel. The Seal Sanctuary is due to be constructed in the next few years, and the local GAA club is in the process of being upgraded.
The cost of living is slightly less than that in the big smoke, take aways, shopping, childcare, beauty treatments and drink to name but a few. The seafront is amazing for long walks & you're closer in commute time to Newry than the city centre for shopping on a Saturday. Maybe I'm biased, but I can't speak highly enough for Balbriggan

It's a great place to bring up kids, as soon as the weather is good, Little Miss Mo is gone from one end of the day to the other, and there are loads of young couples around.
Sorry, i meant to say, I work in Ballsbridge and my commute to work takes approx 55 mins on the train, and i've spent longer on some buses to the city centre from Malahide!