Comparing Where We Live, Texas and ?

I am enjoying being on this forum, thanks for the warm welcome and friendly banter for this Texan. On @Jack McHammocklashing 's Allotment thread, @shiney and I got into a discussion about housing, size and prices. So to start this thread off, I copied and pasted shiney's post and I will reply here. But this thread is not just about housing, it can be anything we want to talk about.


Shiney's post (in reply to my questions);
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More modern houses are smaller?
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These are the official figures for three bedroom houses:-

The numbers are square metres which to convert to Square feet you multiply by approx. 10.8

AVERAGE NEW-BUILD HOME SIZE BROKEN DOWN BY REGION

Yorkshire and the Humber: 84

North East: 85.4

West Midlands: 85.7

East Midlands: 86.9

North West: 87.3

South West: 88.7

East of England: 93.5

South East: 93.9

London: 108.5

Total average: 91

Total average excluding London: 88.9

Average sizes in square metres of new-build three-bedroom homes being built across England.

There are many one and two bedroom dwellings which would be much smaller.

Texas is almost three times the size of the UK whereas the population of the UK is two and half times the size of Texas. So we have a lot less land and a much bigger population to squeeze into it.

Property costs are quite high in the southern part of the country and less in the north. London is a complete exception where it's almost impossible for a normal person to buy a house. In Central London the cost of a three bedroom house can be over $3,000,000.

I live in the country about 25 miles north of London and my neighbour's house is up for sale. It is 1,500sq ft (plus a one car garage) and is going for about a million dollars. I can't see how young people today can afford to buy a house . That's why houses are so small.

Thank you Shiney for explaining that to me!

We bought our home in a bid situation. It was a repossession and was sold to the highest bidder. It listed at $62,000 for a 1500 sq. ft. 2007 doublewide mobile home and 8 acres. It was vastly underpriced. Typically in bid type sales, bidders bid under, we bid up. We bid $65,655 and won the bid. We had not even seen it! Our daughter found it, her and her husband met the realtor to see it, and said go for it, so we did. Land in 8 acre parcels in this particular area, goes for $8,000 to over $10,000 per acre, so you see, we got quite the bargain!

Here is a link to places for sale in the county we live in, I set the property size to 5 to 50 acres. Some of it is just stupid high, I can't see how anybody can afford it. Adjoining counties have lower prices (and taxes), but I thought ya'll might get a kick at looking at what's for sale here.

http://www.landsoftexas.com/Smith-County-TX/all-land/5-50-acres/

 

To add an extra dimension to this, here is an ad for a house in this area...

http://www.hemnet.se/bostad/villa-7rum-froslov-ystads-kommun-tagarpsvagen-378-10488455

The price is of course in Swedish Crowns. Divide by 9 to get USD, and 10 to get GBP.

 

Its on 17 000 square metres of ground, so yes, just over 4 acres.

If anyone has seen the series "Beck" then they have also seen more of where the house is situated. Its in the same council area.

 

Its all about location. I live in Chester County, PA, USA, parts of it one acre goes for over $150,00 an empty acre. People look at the school systems here also. We paid for ours 26 years ago, sits on 3 acres a 1800 foot house. 3 bedroom, 2 bath, paid $122,00. The school in this area is considered not the best, we do not have kids, so it did not matter. Our same house today could be listed for $220,00.

 

I am confused with all these posts as everyone is talking in Dollars with their figures so don't know what has happened to the £ symbol when talking about UK house prices

@redstar so for being thick but did you pay $122.00 dollars for your house 26 years ago or should it be $122,000 for it because at $122.00 dollars that was very good value all those years ago or am I reading it wrong being blonde and all that

When we was away in Derbyshire (UK) last month we met a couple who had a house in the area that Shiney was brought up in (Hackney) which they bought in 1972 for £12,000 I think It was and they were saying it is now worth around £2,000,000. A good investment me thinks

 

@Kandy , those are comas,,,,,,, not periods...... must have typed it at 3AM.

Anyway, my husband's brother and his wife live in Orange County, California, they bought their house for 750,00. or about 3/4 of a million$$$ give our take. But the point is, if you do a earth google they all look like little square boxes in a row. If you earth google my address, you see no house due to all the trees covering. And, their 3/4 $$$ million house, they can see what their neighbor has for breakfast. Where as my house, we do not even need curtains to close, as neighbors are not near, our little home.

 

Hi @shiney,this couple started talking to us after the lady nearly got mown down by a cyclist who was in a bit of a hurry and she desperately needed someone to talk to to get it off of her chest so to speak They were saying that they go up to Derbyshire nearly every weekend so we suspect that they have a second home somewhere near the Tissington Trail and they were going home for lunch then on to Grindleford.They just love London with its diverse range of people and when I mentioned that someone I knew(you)was brought up in Hackney they said that the area was very up and coming and was becoming quiet affluent hence the prices starting to go through the roof for a lot of first time buyers On that particular walk we had so many people stopping to talk to us that it started raining and we got a bit damp before we got back to the car.All this talking must be something to do with the halo I have above my head

 

Thanks for that @redstar I was expecting some extra 00000's but I think it is just the way we all talk differently that I misunderstood what you was trying to say as Shiney was starting to talk in dollars ($ and not pounds £) Over here we call ...... full stops,not periods

It must be so nice to have three acres of land to play around with although now at my age I don't think I could manage that much to garden.I will have to have a look at Google Earth to see all those little boxes over there,although we all seem to live in little boxes over here

 

I get that quiet often, when this site talks pounds, pounds, pounds. Which is more often than anyone talking dollars. @Kandy .

 

A pound cash, or a pound in weight ? possibly a pounding headache :-)

 

A dog pound, perhaps Jack?lol