• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Georgian Cottage In A Village...

Cathy C said:
Boy, I don't know. I just moved from the Denver, Colorado area, and prices are UNREAL! What's considered a "bungalow", which is 900 sq.ft. with a partial finished basement (that used to be a coal bunker) on a 10th acre lot sold for $120,000! We were on the fortunate end of the scale, because we bought our little place on the outskirts of a mobile home subdivision for $56,000 back in the 80's and sold for $175,000. I was almost embarrassed to write the contract!

Can UK prices be that much worse?? :confused:

Cathy
Click to expand...

Much worse.

A well-built 2BR bungalow (no basement, tiny lot) in Lincolnshire, 150 miles north of London in a boring agricultural town, goes for about $400,000. An icky 1BR flat in Hounslow, a grotty outer London neighborhood in the shadow of Heathrow, goes for about $275,000. Not modern, no garden.

The scary thing is most English people are up to their eyebrows in mortgage debt. It's considered normal. Considering that pay scales are considerably lower than in the US, it's a very precarious situation. That's why half of England is moving to France now.

BTW, the prices you're amazed at in Denver are nothing at all compared to the Hudson Valley. You couldn't find anything at all around here for less than $200K and the average is more like $500K. But my English relatives think we've got it easy.
 
Marquis Rex said:
Novella it was the insidious conformity I was trying to get away from - all the joined up houses and lack of space. This house is quite unique though....

. . . I've fruitlessly been trying to emigrate.

Time to make a stand here I think.

Novella It hasn't sold yet, there's a slump in the market and properties up there dont sell quickly. I'm planning to make an offer.
Click to expand...


Well, good luck with it. Though now you can move anywhere in the EU, right? That's a fantastic development. When George Bush reinstates the draft, we'll be compatriots! (I have a little bunny who will definitely not become cannon fodder.)
 
i think the house is adorable! it's exactly the kind i love - has great character. of course you can always paint the walls you dont like, that's nothing

you're in the same boat as my husband and i. we're going to buy a house in about 6 months and, luckily, the market here looks like it's cooling off a bit. a 1000sqft bungalow in our town recently went for 440,000 CAD - which is too much for that size. we need at least 2 bedrooms, a decent yard and a 2 bay garage/workshop (my hubby's also into cars) so we'll be moving a bit further away than we would like, but oh well. i know the prices your way are high because my husband has relations around London. some of them moved here for the same reasons you want to move to america. we're lucky because i can use my rrsp's as a down payment on the house so we don't have to save for that (we're first time buyers).
 
Houston's about the cheapest market there is, I guess I'm lucky. I'd much prefer a house with more character tho, ours is very cookie-cutter suburban.
 
Ashlea said:
Houston's about the cheapest market there is, I guess I'm lucky. I'd much prefer a house with more character tho, ours is very cookie-cutter suburban.
Click to expand...
Cookie cutter is putting it mildly! I'm surprised there isn't a rash of "oops, wrong house" accidental entries every day. Haha, I'm just picking, Ashlea. :p

We lucked out and I count my lucky stars every day. :D My husband's family has farmland in the country, we got an awesome deal on a fixer-upper that had to be moved, and father-in-law loaned us the $$ for it. We've been here seven years and it still needs some work but the kids have room to roam and we can afford for me to stay home with them.

Marquis, the house is darling. If it's what your heart desires, I hope you get it!
 
cajunmama said:
Cookie cutter is putting it mildly! I'm surprised there isn't a rash of "oops, wrong house" accidental entries every day.
Click to expand...

Um, done that actually, yeah. :eek:
 
Ashlea said:
Houston's about the cheapest market there is, I guess I'm lucky. I'd much prefer a house with more character tho, ours is very cookie-cutter suburban.
Click to expand...

Nope! Try Brady. Bought a pretty little, 1300s.f. place in town as a fixer-upper rental, and only paid . . . $23,000! :eek: Yep, that's right, no third digit in front of the comma.

Picked up our place outside of town with ten cross-fenced acres, a pond, corrals and three water sources (including a very picturesque windmill shown below) for under $100,000. It's why we moved to Texas! :D

Cathy
(Yep, my hubby is a super photographer, and the Texas sunsets are nothing to sniff at, either!)

calendar010.jpg
 
Oooh, pretty! I love the hill country, but my allergist has counseled against moving there, ever.
 
Novella, I wouldn't be interested in moving anywhere else in the EU. I'm tied to the car industry for starters, and that leaves Germany, where you're not allowed to wash your cars for environmental reasons and taxes are super super high if you're single. The Scandinavian countries are similar.

It's pretty much either America-Michigan or nothing. I would perhaps consider Australia. We're losing alot of good engineers to Melbourne......
If I made it big as a writer however, I wouldn't care.....oh well, enough of THAt fantasy! *L*
 
Looks like I'm going ahead with this.
The sign that's outside that property now reads "Sold Subject To contract". I've driven past dozens of times!
You'll also see that the agents have taken it off their lists so the link no longer works.
It would be nice to make the move before Christmas but that seems unlikely.
Now I have to clear this hovel up and make it worthy of sale....
 
Congratulations are in order, then, Rex!!!! I am so happy for you! And very nice to see you again (you haven't been posting much lately). :)
 
Thanks CajunMama!
I pop my head 'around the door' from time to time!
This place has a nice demeanor and some nice people compared to some other forums I frequent! :cool:
 
Can't believe it's taken the overpaid solicitors SOO long.
I went for a walk around for a briefing (from the current owners) about how to sort the heating and oil fire out this evening.

I pick up the keys this coming Friday....
Peace, quiet and distance from chav-scum :D
 
Marquis Rex said:
Can't believe it's taken the overpaid solicitors SOO long.
I went for a walk around for a briefing (from the current owners) about how to sort the heating and oil fire out this evening.

I pick up the keys this coming Friday....
Peace, quiet and distance from chav-scum :D
Click to expand...

That might be the first instance of chav on this site? <bells . . whistles...>
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top