Comments on: Geographical Location & House Prices

By: Marcia

Marcia — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:08:50 +0000

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.

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Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:35:57 +0000

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By: angela

angela — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:10:11 +0000

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: margot1257

margot1257 — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:08:29 +0000

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: Rinelle

Rinelle — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:18:00 +0000

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: Shoestring

Shoestring — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:23:39 +0000

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: Anna

Anna — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:09:06 +0000

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: Looby

Looby — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:29:17 +0000

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: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:30:30 +0000

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: Dreamer

Dreamer — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:38:29 +0000

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