Good, safe place to live in/around Manchester?

Stretford is very mixed but a bit far from the university. Whalley Range is closer and again is mixed, the chorlton side tends to be a lot posher/nicer than the moss side end. Hulme is an old hell hole but the regeneration has made huge improvements and is now very popular with students due to its walking distance to all three universities (Manc, MMU and Salford). Old Trafford is mixed it depends which end, most of it like stretford offers little to students.

You don't want to live in trafford park unless you have a fettish for industrial estates (once the biggest in the world).

Personaly I would be looking at:-

Chorlton - Very bohemian, lots of real ale pubs, organic supermarkets and general oddness but I love the place.
Didsbury - Clone town but quite a leafy area with many bars.
Fallowfield - Not one of the nicest parts of Manchester but it is where most students live and has very good student bars and buses into town every second.
Hulme - If you can find some where new and cheap on the city centre end you can get a bargain and you can always walk to the city centre bars and pubs.
Whalley Range - The chorlton end is just an extension of Chorlton these days and has some good quality homes at good prices. The Alexandra Road end has a poorer bus service, but the upper chorlton road end is served by the frequent 86.
Stretford - The chorlton end is not too bad and is very close to the metrolink but not much there. The middle part is a bit rough and the Urmston part is too far though on a direct route to university (15).
Withington - Slap bang in the middle of Fallowfield and Didsbury, its becoming more popular with students. It is cheaper than Fallowfield in terms of rent and has better quality housing.
City Centre - Slightly more expensive and noisy but its not stupidly expensive due to a flood of apartments.

What's the Chorlton/Withington/Didsbury area like for shopping, pubs etc?

My area so I can describe this great detail Obviously some of this is opinion based.

Withington - Pretty awful for both shops and night life, though Tesco in Parrs Wood is not far away by bus and the village has the basis such as Gregs and small supermarkets. The pubs are strictly rough wet affairs.

Didsbury - Very commercial in terms of night life, the bars are just all clone town and they are too busy for my liking. They do open late. Shops are pretty good and village is close to both town and Stockport.

Chorlton - Very different, there is a commercial shopping centre but most shops are locally owned and there is a very anti chain ethos to the village. Nightlife is also very different with lots of real ale bars, wine bars and usual working man's style pubs. I like them all and they are great pre town venues but most shut at 12:00.

Didsbury/Withington is a lot easier But with Chorlton during the week there is a regular bus service till midnight then it just stops, at weekends it goes on till about 3:00am.

To be honest Chorlton is a favoured by graduates and is not that popular with students due to the higher prices and not as good transport as wilsmlow road areas.

Sale is in Trafford and borders Chorlton and Stretford. I don't know Sale that well to be honest, its not good for buses into town but it does have a metrolink station.

Didsbury have some massive houses but don't expect to get any house for less than £500,000 in Didsbury itself, £850,000 price tags are common. Chorlton is a bit more reasonable but even there a 3 bed terrace you won't get much change out of £300k. South Manchester property prices have gone mad.