Most American-esque place in the UK?!

[EnglishDreamer]

I've name changed for this because I'm embarrassed at how ridiculous I sound

I am so jealous of American housing. Every American TV programme I've seen suggests that nearly all of their homes are detached and on amazing plots... I just want to be surrounded by trees and, well, space. I know TV doesn't necessarily reflect real life, but I mean documentaries not dramas etc. And now my brother in law has moved to Canada and has a stunning property like that, which cost less than my tiny box with a postage stamp garden

I don't want to move abroad, so is there anywhere in the UK that can offer this kind of property? Obviously it would be many times the price of most places North America but I need to have a goal, however unattainable
It's not actually the size of the house I dream about, it's the environment around it. Everywhere on our little island is so cramped (for exactly that reason, we just don't have the space to build like they do over there).

Just to add - I do realise that I'm making lots of generalisations here!

Scotland may be your best bet? I found this, and they're surprisingly affordable!

If you don't buy this one I bloody will!

Oh my god why is housing so cheap in Scotland?? I really want to know.

Maybe the rural areas of Lincolnshire? My dad lives up there and sees more cows than people...

Alvingham, Louth, LN11
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-92964242.html

@Boomerwang I know!! The one I linked to would go for 1.5 million easily where I am!

68 Hawthorn Bank, Spalding, PE11
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-79655083.html

Boomerwang demand and supply?

Space sounds fantastic. The reality is ( like America or Scotland) the facilities are miles away.
You either get properly spaced houses on some sort of US style housing urbanisation , in a village or on its own. I used to live in Florida and you could walk down streets of huge set back houses and never see a soul.There were woods and undeveloped land nearby but never anyone in it. Very odd. Nearest shops and restaurants were a 15 minute drive. No walking to the pub to meet up.

Northern Ireland. Big houses, massive gardens. Only catch is the more rural you are the more likely you are to encounter an equally American style mid west bible belt culture ...

Because the higher income jobs are scarce? Less facilities, shite weather.
I'm in a detached house, nice garden, 3 bed with outbuildings, amazing views as the sea is at the end of my field, that cost 80k....but the last sunny day was June the 16th (its rained ever since) , its a 40mile round trip to Tesco and there's only one local primary and one high school.

Look up redrow housing.

There are new build housing estates like these which are built often near nature reserves to be really green and spacious. Beautiful houses and very American with the space and the fact you have to drive everywhere. Not for me as I like old, quirky housing and being able to walk everywhere, but I do get the appeal.

They look like showhomes inside

But everywhere isn't cramped. I can think of loads of places around here with big houses on big plots. Lots of examples here, in and around nice suburbs around half an hour outside Leeds

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E11511&minBedrooms=4&maxPrice=900000&radius=3.0&propertyTypes=&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

Op, I say exactly the same thing all the time! Every time I watch one of those American documentaries or shows, I'm so incredibly jealous of their houses. So much space...the huge front gardens...yet, so many ordinary people live in them, whereas in this country, London especially, only really wealthy people can live in houses that big.

It would be interesting if any American Mumsnetters could say whether the housing depicted in the US is in any way realistic.

Are the houses really that big and achievable to ordinary people in ordinary jobs? Or is it sheer unrealistic fantasy?

I remember reading that the apartments in Friends would be no way affordable to Monica etc unless illegally sublet rent controlled for example.

Similarly most of the people in EastEnders couldn't possibly afford to live in Albert square on the incomes their jobs in the programme infer.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-79753342.html

I know exactly what you mean, it is my dream to move to New England to an American house. I went on a school exchange and they lived in the quintessential US sprawling middle class home, it was gorgeous (incidentally I did an additional exchange a few years later and it was a very normal house and not big much bigger than a UK house except on a much bigger plot and lovely porch, lots of different types of houses of course). I love this house above not far from Stamford.

A new build on a planned estate is your best bet or something Cheshire, footballers wives style. But honestly, most houses in America are pretty cheaply build (I'm American, spent 20+ years living there). They fall apart pretty easily and do not hold their value the way houses here do. Prices are cheap just because the market is so flooded. I've looked up my childhood homes. They are now selling for less than what we sold them for back in the 90s and naughties.

That said, there is a lot of cramped, substandard housing with no outdoor space too. It's not all what you see on tv.

The cost of building materials is a major factor in American housing because they rarely use brick for walls. I think we would teen the construction type as pre-fabricated.

Redrow homes are gorgeous, I agree. I just love them and they seem very well built compared to other new builds we’ve looked at. Usual issues with plot size but they do seem to have a good amount of green space and landscaping within the developments. I love following Instagram accounts where people show off their new build Redrows (yes I know I need to get a life )

Plenty of rural huge homes in the US, or even suburban ones. You won't be able to walk anywhere from them, though, so your teens are effectively prisoners until they get a driving license (UK equivalents tend to have a shop in walking distance or ramblers or at the very least, the police won't be called because a kid is walking down the road).

Many US houses aren't built to last - once a family's kids grow up and the parents downsize, it'll be knocked down if it hasn't fallen down already.i read a guide on buying houses in England that started with "Most houses in England are second-hand."

The large apartments in US cities are about as implausible as they would be here.

I like how they all have porches that you can sit out on and watch the neighbours

In the USA while for some areas the properties aren't really cheaper (I was offered an oppertunity around the Boston area, but it's very expensive) salaries are often higher, I was offered 5x what I earn here, I was told even someone in a coffee shop will be earning $40,000, I don't know how accurate that is for the whole country though.

I don't think it's the house size for me, it's the way that a lot of the houses seem to just sit in the natural environment IYKWIM. Like I imagine from your description @Leflic. And especially how I imagine a lot of New England to be. Small town America. I just want to walk out of the front door and be surrounded by trees and nature! Even rural properties here rarely have that natural sort of feel. Some gorgeous houses in those links though!

Where I live there are 32 houses on 50 acres. It is fairly unique because it is on an ex industrial site but in a very rural area and when the houses were built there was an agreement that only the previously built on land was built on.

The problem with most new build in the UK is that the government sets mininium density requirements so a high number of houses have to be built on a small area resulting in them all crammed together.

Our development feels very american even down to the verandas on many of the houses.

"whether the housing depicted in the US is in any way realistic."

ho hum. I don't know what you have seen.
The type of house that Kevin is in in the Home Alone movies common yet vast majority do not live in a home remotely like that. Absolutely could not afford it. We have row houses, billions of condos, very boring box style houses, nosy apartments. An "old house" was built before 1920. Modern American houses like American cars are often reverse Tardises bigger on outside than on inside. I loathe Cathedral ceilings.

The apartment that the characters in Big Bang Theory live in: utterly ridiculous. Each of the scientists would be earning £100k each (way more for Bernadette) and living in very nice individual detached houses up in the San Gabriel foothills of Pasadena.

Damn, I don't know what other TV people watch... the house in Fresh Prince of Bel Air was way too small and boring for a very wealthy family. That was very incongruous.

Any movie where American characters live in trailers is more realistic of 'average American' than the Home Alone family house.