house compared to car
Discussion
for most of u people on here with all the expensive cars and such. how does your house compare? Cause i know that in europe the housing isnt necesarily great so u cant really find a nice huge house. ive been reading off the forums a lot and was just wondering about this since i see all u people with the outrageous cars.
European housing is a different style to US housing, mainly down to costs and space availability. I own two houses, one in the UK, a small four bed, one bathrom estate house, link-attached. It is located in a poor area, about 35 miles from London and is currently valued at just over $320,000. I do not know the exact square footage, but is probably around 1500, an average size family house in the UK.
My other house is in Hungary, just outside Budapest. It is a large detached family house, 4 bedrooms, two studies (dens?) and an exercise room, 3 bathrooms, garage and workshop (see ad in property section here on PH), and is valued at around $200,000. It has about 2,500 square feet, not including the garage and workshop.
My brother has a house about 10 miles away from my UK house, smaller, (about 1000 square feet) but in better location, valued at around $375,000.
In summary, UK house prices are ridiculously high, except in certain low employment areas, mainly up north. Mainland Europe is generally more realistic, but the US, as in most things, is cheaper.
My other house is in Hungary, just outside Budapest. It is a large detached family house, 4 bedrooms, two studies (dens?) and an exercise room, 3 bathrooms, garage and workshop (see ad in property section here on PH), and is valued at around $200,000. It has about 2,500 square feet, not including the garage and workshop.
My brother has a house about 10 miles away from my UK house, smaller, (about 1000 square feet) but in better location, valued at around $375,000.
In summary, UK house prices are ridiculously high, except in certain low employment areas, mainly up north. Mainland Europe is generally more realistic, but the US, as in most things, is cheaper.
kevinday said: Mainland Europe is generally more realistic, but the US, as in most things, is cheaper.
As a genral rule yes, but it depends on where you live. Here in Northern Virginia, townhouses routinely go for upwards of $275,000. Ridiculous IMO.
Hence, I rent (but it still costs me an arm and a leg, and I have a steal as far as rent goes...)
madmike said:
kevinday said: Mainland Europe is generally more realistic, but the US, as in most things, is cheaper.
As a genral rule yes, but it depends on where you live. Here in Northern Virginia, townhouses routinely go for upwards of $275,000. Ridiculous IMO.
Hence, I rent (but it still costs me an arm and a leg, and I have a steal as far as rent goes...)
sounds pretty affordable to me mike, you can't buy a wendy house in london for that!
anywhere within striking distance of London is now practically a no-go zone for FTB and low-paid workers. Virtually everywhere in the UK is within a couple of miles of a property worthy $1 plus, and average prices rose by 22% last year.
I can't believe there is anywhere in the world with greater house price: earnings ratios than the UK.
mrsd said:
mikeylad said:Virtually everywhere in the UK is within a couple of miles of a property worthy $1 plus, and average prices rose by 22% last year.
I hear you can still buy houses in some parts of the NW for 66p
you can! take Burnage for example. only a mile from Didsbury!
I say buy a street for about 15 quid, stick a gate on each end, and knock them all through. your front room could be 12 by 150 feet. with a huge TV at the far end! and a bowling alley.
for most of u people on here with all the expensive cars and such. how does your house compare? Cause i know that in europe the housing isnt necesarily great so u cant really find a nice huge house. ive been reading off the forums a lot and was just wondering about this since i see all u people with the outrageous cars.
I understand your point, we have to put up with buildings with long histories, built of stone or brick that wouldn't fall down if you dropped a small planet on them.
Whereas in the States your passion and history for building wooden houses means when you move you really can move, hitch your house up to a truck and tow it to it's new home, just avoid tornados.
Hence our will always be more sought after and thus more expensive.
actually the town a branch of my family founded and is named after them (in Nebraska - "Hick country" 
) is completely made up of Wooden houses, nice but they do tend to get blown down if the local cattle break wind. >> Edited by FourWheelDrift on Monday 2nd June 15:38
for most of u people on here with all the expensive cars and such. how does your house compare? Cause i know that in europe the housing isnt necesarily great so u cant really find a nice huge house. ive been reading off the forums a lot and was just wondering about this since i see all u people with the outrageous cars.
for most of you here with an oldsmobile or a Geo, i was wondering how your houses compare? i know that the houses in the US are clapboard, daub and wattle, up in a month, down in a storm, so was wondering where you find garages for your fine General Motors?
devoke, you are a poster of rare tact and sensitivity. don't you know an Englishman's home is his castle?
i suggest perhaps you don't know quite as much about Europe as you think you do. Maybe time to leave the News of the World on the shelf and upgrade to USA Today?
>> Edited by mikeylad on Monday 2nd June 15:40
Problem in Europe is, that sooo many people live here, but there are not enough caves available to house everybody.
... Cause i know that in europe the housing isnt necesarily great so u cant really find a nice huge house. ...
So when somebody wants to live in a cave, he goes there and tries to kill the occupant with a cudgel (Europeans do not have baseball bats, because they have no culture).
The ones who loose the fight have to build their mud huts themselves, or sleep on a tree; only to freeze themselves to death the next winter. (There are no deserts in Europe, because it isn't actually that close to the Mid-East.
somebody correct me, if I missed anything.I think I understand Brians' point, and I don't believe he's 'avin a pop. I've spent a lot of time in the US over the last 10 years, and, on the whole, the houses out there *do* seem larger and better proportioned. You don't see many semi-detached or terraces (aka 'Town House' and often very nice indeed) outside of major cities. The same is true in Australia; I lived there for 2 years and my missus' uncle owned a house building company out there.
I've always put this down to 1) real estate being cheaper (certainly more of it!) with more relaxed zoning, and 2) construction methods. Standard method of build in US is timber frame I think, which is not so common here. The results of space constraint and more durable buildings is visible in the big cities where you definitely get less for your money and can end up with really unsvoury neighbours to boot (take a walk around Telegraph Hill in San Francisco and you'll see what I mean). Silicon Valley at the height of the internet boom got really expensive, though rather than pull houses down and build more densely it seemed that people preferred to commute. You pays yer money etc.
I've always put this down to 1) real estate being cheaper (certainly more of it!) with more relaxed zoning, and 2) construction methods. Standard method of build in US is timber frame I think, which is not so common here. The results of space constraint and more durable buildings is visible in the big cities where you definitely get less for your money and can end up with really unsvoury neighbours to boot (take a walk around Telegraph Hill in San Francisco and you'll see what I mean). Silicon Valley at the height of the internet boom got really expensive, though rather than pull houses down and build more densely it seemed that people preferred to commute. You pays yer money etc.
devoke said: well about the owning as geo or oldsmobile, my family dont actually own one of those, but its not like we have anything very highend to drive. and the ironic thing is that we are living it basiaclly a mansion like house compared to the houses u folk seem to be describing
so (picking up various threads here), your parents are rich, they don't drive anything 'highend', you are 16, they are buying you an illegal supercar (that noble, remember?), which you are picking up from somewhere in the UK, you are 16, you are going to build a $60,000 ultima, as soon as your second garage is finished. you are 16, we haven't described any houses, as such, and (whilst appreciating your nod to irony) i was being sarcastic about the geo and the oldsmobile. Bodo and fourwheeldrift were also being sarcastic. perhaps we should wave a flag or something so you'll know? oh, and everyone has seen The Italian Job. even the under 21's.
ok. i'm up to speed.
what was your question again?
actually i have a question? are you prone to telling little porky pies? if so, please toddle off. you have some serious alterations to be making to your imminent non-road-legal British sportscar. (the noble, remember?)
>> Edited by mikeylad on Monday 2nd June 22:49
Having been born here and been there, yes, our everything seems to be bigger, but yall knew that already. It's just a big cultural difference...here we have copious amounts of land and space, so we demand it. Europe is much more crowded (something about centuries of residency or some such concept) and hence tastes and styles differ to reflect.
I'll never forget my first stay in a posh London hotel...with a little effort I'm sure I could have stretched my arms and touched oppsite walls at once. However, everything was very nice, cozy and rustic in its decor. I quite liked it. It just takes some getting used to the cultural differences.
Still, whenever I do come home after a stay abroad, I feel like I can take a huge deep breath and spread out...just born into me I guess.
OK, hijacking over...
I'll never forget my first stay in a posh London hotel...with a little effort I'm sure I could have stretched my arms and touched oppsite walls at once. However, everything was very nice, cozy and rustic in its decor. I quite liked it. It just takes some getting used to the cultural differences.
Still, whenever I do come home after a stay abroad, I feel like I can take a huge deep breath and spread out...just born into me I guess.
OK, hijacking over...
think it was a pretty erasonable question as it goes.....Devoke...is space vs people. We have lots of the second and not much of the first...so lots of houses are smaller and still expensive. That said, The Duke Of Westminster has a few places which are kinda nice, and here's a piccy of my house
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