I’ve enjoyed reading a new blog, which has included a family in the USA purchasing a 7000 square foot house for around $250,000 US. This works out to £153,000 UK Stirling. Where I live, you can purchase a two bedroom flat (500 square feet) for a similar price, and I live in a cheaper part of the country compared to the South East, London & Surrey in particular would be exceptionally more expensive.
The average detached 3 bedroom house in England is £344, 989 (averaging around about 1000 square feet), this works out to $ 563, 378 US or $606,654 Canadian. For 1000 square feet and 3 bedrooms….in London, the same house would cost significantly more.
In the USA I have friends in 11 different states, in Canada I have friends in 4 provinces. All ask me how the average person can afford to purchase a home in the UK. Our average first time buyer’s age is currently 34, I am sure mainly to do with house prices. I know that many of my friends have not been able to purchase a home until they have had inheritances. As our rent is so high, it can also be hard to save for a down payment. There are certainly places in England below the average, although as more people move out in order to afford housing, prices inevitably increase in those areas as well.
This leads me to the question, is it worth making a significant move – either to another end of the country or to a different country in order to find cheaper housing?
Here are some questions I think you would have to ask yourself and considerations worth making:
- What is the job market like? Don’t assume you can get a job in any area, especially in this economy!
- How do the wages compare? A job in London may give you £40,000 a year, whereas in Devon a similar job may only pay £25,000.
- Is the difference in house costs significant enough to offset the lower pay?
- What are schools like? A friend of mine moved to a very cheap area in order to buy a nice 3 bedroom home (she is adding to her family through adoption and needed another bedroom), however, the schools in her new area are all failing schools and so as a result is having to look at private schools! In the end this will actually be more expensive than living in a different area with better schools.
- What are the transport links like for visiting family and friends?
- How much will it cost to take the train/coach/bus/drive back to parents, grandparents and siblings?
- What leisure activities are freely available? Here in Exeter, within 20 minutes there are over 50 free sites for leisure, so much is available that I don’t need memberships to leisure pursuits that I felt necessary when I lived in Surrey. You will need to factor all this in.
- What is the transport like in your city? Are there carshare schemes, bus passes, park & rides or will you need to increase the amount of money you put towards commuting to work?
- What is the weather like?
- How will you cope with being needed when you are far away? We all have a responsibility towards our aging parents, relatives and friends, planning how you will deal with emergencies that arise when you live far away are crucial.
- What are the services like hospitals like?
- If you have any special medical needs you might want to have a look at what is available in the areas you are considering.
- If you plan to adopt, you may want to look at what adoption agencies are located in the areas you are considering. They can vary tremendously and you certainly don’t want to regret your move!
- Do you like the county & country enough to live there even without the bait of lower house prices? At the end of the day you have to live there and enjoy your life, not simply be able to afford to purchase a home.
Have you ever moved due to house prices? Was it a positive move? Are there any other special considerations one should contemplate before moving?
For those who are interested, my new post is up at the Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op!
great ideas ft! i currently live in birmingham which is just under an hour from my parents (much better than in bradford when i was 3-4 hours!) although i rent i keep an eye on house prices as i would dearly like to buy my own, and as singledom seems to be my current situation i am basing any projections on my single income…it ain’t pretty. at the moment i’m filing it away in my “one day” pile and trying to save like mad to give myself a decent deposit. and rolling my eyes at every single story in the news i read about the housing market. it’s a joke for first time buyers, imho.
) xx
i appreciate your list and will add it to my “homebuying” folder (yes, i am creating a folder…with various concerns, current balances, and stupid things like interior decorating ideas…it gives me some tangible idea of what i’m saving FOR – cf your last post
By: rachel on September 12, 2009
at 10:22 am
My thoughts on relocating to another European country:
Well, one of our reasons for ‘hitting the road’ was to a) have a travelling adventure and b) check out how we might feel about relocating permanently to another country. What we found was that a) we had a fabulous adventure but b) there are a lot of compromises to make when you move to a new country and you have to be really aware of them. The try it out is really the only way to completely understand if you can make them.
We have found that often things like house prices/jobs/pay are relative and the one thing we found in places like France/Portugal/Spain is that even if you were in a position to buy a really cheap house (ruin with land) and live frugally – you might be fairly isolated and you still have to find ’some’ money to live. This is great, but with us having a family and thus responsibility beyond just us two, it was a concern as to how we would find that money (people are struggling all over for work) and if being quite isolated was the best future for our daughter.
We still haven’t reached a firm decision, but at the moment we are prepared to ‘give it a go’ in England again but in a new life to the one we had before. However, we are under no illusion that living the life we want to live (less outgoings, no 9-5, more time together) is a hard dream to achieve here. Watch this space.
By: Fanciful Alice on September 12, 2009
at 10:45 am
We live in the south east but our particular little town in SE Essex is considerably cheaper than the one five minutes closer to London on the rail line (not only in house prices but in cost of living in general). If we wanted to move down to Basildon the house prices would become even cheaper again.
The prices here are probably cheaper, on average, than the house prices in Bristol where my family live. We have good schools, wonderful transport links and plenty of excellent facilities in the area. However, wages in SE Essex are pitiful (IMHO) and you’d definitely need to commute to the City in order to earn a decent wage.
We still rent and are waiting until the house prices have bottomed out before we buy. Sadly, every person with a house to sell in our town is also playing the waiting game as there is absolutely NOTHING suitable on the market at the moment.
By: Elizabeth on September 12, 2009
at 11:29 am
I think this is such an important post and one I haven’t really considered too seriously until now. I think finding a community in which you feel at home philosophically, that has your most important needs/wants at its heart and allows you to afford to live is really important.
By: Kathryn on September 12, 2009
at 12:54 pm
This is part of my grand plan, to downsize and relocate somewhere where the houseprices are much cheaper. Practically, we feel we would probably eventually settle back in the uk perhaps Devon, after we have had a good look around at the rest of europe, I just want a little cottage which is rural or at least semi rural and just some money to be OK.
BUT like you I often look accross the pond in terms of what our money would buy there – DH and I have often discussed buying a small home in canada , but we cant work there because of immigration…
I think its important to try renting in an area first to see if it suits, I think it will be a while before we will jump into buying a house again, I’ve had enough for a while LOL
By: Dreamer on September 12, 2009
at 2:38 pm
Great post, lots of things to think about. I do live in the states, wyoming to be exact. Prices are considerably cheaper here than in Europe, but here in Wyoming the big downfall is that you can’t really walk to anything at least where we live.I would love to be able to walk to the corner shop, but unfortunately there is none. The upside is that we have purchased a large chunk of land for not much, so our children can grow up with lots of space. I love the fact that where our land is there is not really anything commercial, but again the drawback of having to drive to do anything.
By: Jennifer on September 12, 2009
at 3:30 pm
Great post; I love your list of questions. SO and I moved to Canada because he had a job offer; but we’re really considering staying much longer term now.
As for housing; we unfortunately picked (I think) the most expensive housing market in Canada; but we are not expecting to buy for at least another 7-8 years; when we’ll be mid-thirties.
I’d love to own my own place now, but I don’t want to live in a large city permanently so we have to save enough to cover the potential loss of earnings if we move somewhere more rural.
Now all I have to do is convince my parents to let me sponsor them here!
By: Looby on September 12, 2009
at 5:29 pm
We live in a very expensive town in South East. Although we could probably sell up and relocate and save lots of £££ I just could not contemplate this due to the kids.
I have been exceptionally lucky that both my inlaws and my parents have always shared the childcare between them and they are both in the same town as me. Aside from the childcare the support and being there to just lend a hand is invaluable and priceless. My eldest son also has a severe communciation disorder which has meant specialist education provided by the LEA and I wouldn’t want to inflict too much change on him.
So although we often contemplate moving to the Highlands or setting up a campsite in Wales I know this just can’t happen.
The only way we can afford our house is for both of us to work full time – a big price to pay, but in our circumstances it does suit us, particular with the fab support from my parents/in-laws. Regular childcare just isn’t an option due to my eldest son’s difficulties. And I’ll be honest and say that as my kids are getting older I really do enjoy working and find it brings a lot of enjoyment and positive energy to my life – I’ve done the SAHM thing and it is now time to move on.
I’ve gone off at a tangent here and not sure what my point is (!), but I hope you get the gist.
By: Anna on September 12, 2009
at 7:09 pm
Tricky one, isn’t it? I live in the South West too – by the coast – and the house prices are very, very high, particularly when you consider that the average full-time wage is somewhere around £17k.
I’ve considered moving to one of the neighbouring counties where we could probably get something bigger for our money (a house rather than a flat). Ultimately, we always decide against it. I’d rather be near my family, friends and the sea. There’s plenty of countryside right on my door step even if I don’t have a garden right now. These things are more important to me than having a bigger living room or an extra bedroom – just! I’d love to do the whole house in the country with a massive garden and lots of space thing – I really would. However, to achieve that, both Husband and I would have to throw ourselves much harder into our careers and our lives would revolve around how much money we could earn and how many hours we’d have to work to keep it all going. We’ve been trying to make the most of where we live and all that it can offer us instead though who knows that will happen a few years down the line…
By: Shoestring on September 12, 2009
at 9:23 pm
We moved about an hour out from the city in order to be able to afford a house (and as a bonus, one on 3/4 of an acre rather than a city block), and it definately has worked for us. Initially, the one hour commute to the city for work for DH was a minor inconvenience, but one we were willing to live with for what we gained. And as a bonus, he did get a lot of time to read on the train! However, now that he isn’t working that is no longer an issue.
We’re lucky to have a lot of conveniences nearby (although slightly furter away then where we lived previously), and we’re also closer to the one school I would consider sending DD to (although we’re homeschooling, so that isn’t an issue either).
I think your list of things to consider is really good though, and we did consider most of them when choosing to move further out to buy a cheaper house.
By: Rinelle on September 13, 2009
at 6:18 am
Can you tell me what blog you were reading? I live in the US and there are definitley no 7000 sq ft houses for $250,000 around here. I would love to know what part of the country they are in. On the other hand, imagine all the time you’d have to spend cleaning, rather than doing more fulfilling things. Perhaps I’ll just keep my current house………
By: margot1257 on September 13, 2009
at 8:08 pm
one of the reasons we moved from uk to canada was the thought of getting a larger house for less money. And it did work out that way altho’ we bought an old house which requires a lot of upkeep and to be honest I long for somewhere smaller and modern
But I think overall culture and community should count for more than house prices. What makes it difficult in the UK is the poor standard of rented accommodation. I lived in Sweden for a while and the rented accommodation there was much nicer and it was more common to rent than to buy.
By: angela on September 13, 2009
at 11:10 pm
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By: Geographical Location & House Prices | East London Travel - Culture and Recreation on September 13, 2009
at 11:35 pm
That’s a very good list! There are always compromises, whatever you do.
My husband and I live in Southern California. We love it here. The weather, the philosophy, the ability to walk and bike outdoors a lot (though my company is starting to make it difficult with work schedules). We never planned to stay here, but it sucked us in and we bought a house.
Big compromises: We aren’t anywhere near our families in the northeast. When our parents are in the hospital, we can’t do anything. Housing is expensive here. As in, when we bought, it was $688 per square foot. (our house is worth less than we paid for it). We were in our mid-30’s when we bought, working full time, with good salaries. We could have paid less by moving 1 hour away, but we’d rather have a ~1100 sf house on a city lot and no commute.
We are in a crappy school district, but our school system has open transfers.
By: Marcia on September 14, 2009
at 9:08 pm