$500,000 for a house

You've got to learn about America :D

The true American way is to buy a house way out of your price range by applying for a shady variable rate mortgage that you barely qualify for. Then as the years pass an your monthly payments grow to 7K per month, you either refinance or file for bankruptcy.
...but seriously, $1 million home loans are not uncommon in Southern California.

...So if you have a few hundred thousand to put down as a down payment, you can score a pretty nice place even in Cali.
...If you want to pay $500,000 total... then it's a different story.

From what I've seen, a little more than $500,000 might score you a nice 1000 sq ft. condo here with no backyard and 1 parking space in a decent (very clean/safe) upper middle class area. Single family houses are around $700,000 to $2,000,000 ranging from 1400 - 4000 sq ft. and generally with a pretty small yard especially in the newer developments. Going into older but still nice neighborhoods might save about 10%.

Of course you also have to take into account that your gonna get raped with property taxes and association fees, bonds, etc. This generally comes to about 1-2% of your home's value annually. For a $1 million home, that's 10-20K per year... thank you sir, may I have another :?

If you go to upscale areas or want to live by the beach (Santa Monica, Newport, Malibu) these home prices roughly double.

I've also seen more "urban living" high density sites spring up, e.g., http://www.stadiumloftsnow.com/
These seem to run from the high $300,000s to $700,000s and range from 600 - 1500 sq ft.

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Originally Posted by Unisex

In Boston, a $500k in the city may get you a 2 family three story home. In the Suburbs, $500k may get you a large single family home. $1 million outside the city will get you a mansion. But, it really depends on your taste and situation. Right now, the foreclosure rate in the city is sky high. People can't afford to live.

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I think those prices for the Boston area are rather optimistic, Unisex. Median price for a single family house in metro Boston is $565,000. A friend of mine will soon be selling his apt in Boston (Theatre District) for something like 1.2 million (it has a garage!! 1200 sq ft, three floors, a balcony off the third floor). My house in Marlborough (east central Mass, closer to Worcester than to Boston) is market valued at about $375,000--which is $200,000 over what we paid for it eight years ago. The market is stablizing somewhat: the trend is for prices to stay level or even rise a bit, though the time to sell is longer than it was a few years ago.

In simple terms, the most expensive major metro areas in the US (not necessarily in order) are NYC, Orange County, SF, Boston, and DC. My mom and sister co-own a house in Wilmington, NC, which is about 800 sq ft bigger than mine yet is valued at about half of ours. So location, location, location, as they say in real estate.

God. Super expensive. I just wondered what I could get if I sold up everything and emigrated.

I'd have to kill off half the family to afford some of these.

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Originally Posted by Alison Faraday

We pay (in equiv. $)

Double Whopper = $10
Takeaway Pizza = $30
Loaf of bread = $2
Pint of milk = $1
Box of cornflakes = $4
Council tax = $3000 yearly
Internet = $40 monthly
Electricity = $300 monthly
Gallon of Petrol = $8+
Small 3-year old car = $12,000

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For the most part, those aren't so far off. I haven't eaten at Mac's or Burger Thing in years--maybe decades--so I don't know their prices, but most of what you're citing isn't far off--except petrol, of course. Us Yanks are bitchin' about $3 a gallon, and you're paying $8. Is your Internet connection broadband? Then that's in the ballpark (I think I'm paying $45/mo for FIOS). Electricity: hmm, I'd have to check. That does seem a good deal higher. Is council tax like our real estate tax? Then that's in the ballpark, at least here in Mass.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alison Faraday

God. Super expensive. I just wondered what I could get if I sold up everything and emigrated.

I'd have to kill off half the family to afford some of these.

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Yeah, my wife and I pull down a decent living (she's a software engineer, I'm a webmaster), but it's barely enough here. It's no wonder that 40% of all Americans have less than 25K in retirement savings (ok, I made that figure up, but actually I think it's very close to that; I just heard the report a couple of days ago but can't quote it exactly). But if you want to live in NC, Atlanta, TX, NM, or several other places, you can do pretty well.

I always thought the US was cheaper and a higher standard of living than over here.

Yes I think council tax maybe like your real estate tax I don't know. Council Tax covers local amenities, refuse collection, street lighting, parks, the high street, police, local buildings. That kind of thing.

Internet here is 8Mbit broadband. Also have gas at about £100 monthly, and water at about £75 monthly. (double those for $).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alison Faraday

Also....

What's the availability of jobs like over there? Say for a 24x7 UNIX SysAdmin or Tech Pre Sales? Not what the agencies say, but what's the word on the street of jobs availability?

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Right now, in IT, jobs are happening. I've been averaging 3-5 headhunter calls or emails per day for the past couple of months. Some are really tempting, but I run my own business and do a little work on the side as a photographer, and I don't want to give that up, so I'm accepting an income currently of about 60K/yr. Web development, sys admin, software engineer, the jobs are out there, and in the greater Boston area you could land something in the 60-90K range (or more) depending on your experience and skill set (a good friend of mine bills at $250/hr, you'd think he's a lawyer or escort, lol, but he's a programmer who works with lawyers). I haven't checked for UNIX sys admin lately--my UNIX chops aren't quite that good, just good enough for webmastering--but another good friend pulls over 125K as a sys admin (granted, the guy is brilliant).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NYTSJulie

I live on the North Shore of Long Island (town undisclosed lol) and here $500,000.00 can get you a 1/4 acre empty lot.

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lol, my house sits on .26 acres. The value of the house is actually secondary to the value of the land in these high price areas (LI, Boston, DC, SF, etc.), hence the builders' drive to build MacMansions, huge houses on postage stamp acreage, because a normally sized house won't reflect the property value. But that's changing as the newest trend is downsizing houses (like 2500 sq ft is small; I'm happy with 1500).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alison Faraday

I always thought the US was cheaper and a higher standard of living than over here.

Yes I think council tax maybe like your real estate tax I don't know. Council Tax covers local amenities, refuse collection, street lighting, parks, the high street, police, local buildings. That kind of thing.

Internet here is 8Mbit broadband. Also have gas at about £100 monthly, and water at about £75 monthly. (double those for $).

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Totally depends on where you live. Go north to Maine or NH, and costs drop off (though the long winters tend to drive some costs up). You could live very comfortably in KY, TN, IL, MS, etc.--if you want to. I'm thinking of retiring to NM, where the climate is drier.

Yes, I'd say council tax is roughly equivalent to real estate tax in terms of the amount taken and how it's disbursed. Of course, there are dozens of different types of taxes, and the only three we usually pay attention to are sales, income, and real estate.

8Mb broadband isn't bad; on FIOS I usually get about 11-12 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up (though it's advertized as 15/5).

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