Idle speculation after watching a film today - how much do one of those spacious white clapboard houses in the States cost? And what's their house price to income ratio like?

[WideWebWitch]

Not that I want to move there, I don't but just wondered. dh and I both said "wish we had a garden like that" while watching a film this afternoon. And those type of houses seem bog standard in many family movies. Are they? Is property a lot lot cheaper? Everywhere in the world?

I always think the exact same thing www! Bumping for you (and me)

Dunno, but I think so. I remember reading something about a US TV show that was meant to be poor working class and the house was twice as big as all but the most wealthy in the UK

I think they can build one in about a day as well (timber construction). Actually they do that in Japan as well. Went to stay with a friend one weekend, got pissed one night, slept in the next morning stumbled outside at midday to find a new house right outside. Weird.

will let you know if I find out, have a Vermont Real Estate agent open in another window!

There seems to be a rule for films set in the UK that all the characters live in houses that are about five times as expensive as those they could afford if they were real live people - remember Bridget Jones's bachelorette pad next to Borough Market? - and this seems to hold true for films set in the US too.

I dream of a porch with a swing seat. And a screen door. Like the house in 'Signs' with Mel Gibson. I do not think they are that expensive. Did you ever see grand designs where that woman shipped one over and had it built on a plot of land.

will let you know if I find out, have a Vermont Real Estate agent open in another window!

Like this?
that is only about 125k.

depends where you want to live, in the cities it will be expensive, but away from them it will be cheaper. There has been a property price crash out there recently, best bet is choose an area you like and google land realty or something similar.

Carmenerry Christmass - that house looks like an Amytiville Ghost type house!

Carmen, the outside of that one is but the inside.....

Depends where it is, www! In a popular small town probably 5x the price of the same house in a little rural upstate village.

Yes carmenere, outside looks fab inside looks scary! Blimey, £125k? OMG.

I suppose you've got to compare like for like haven't you so to get home counties prices you've got to compare to commuter belt of big cities.

Did anyone clock the disembodied arm in the kitchen ? [ooh, um, er - face]

Blu, was B Jones's flat nr Borough Market? I didn't know that. Yeah right, on the wages she'd have been on!

Depends on location, of course! In commuter areas for the big cities they can be staggeringly expensive for something that's really quite flimsy.

However it is true that houses tend to be much bigger over there. The average closet sleeps six...

This one is near where we lived in Great Neck, a short commute from Manhattan - $900,000

(Still good value compared to the UK!)

Totally depends where you are. I lived in a very desirable town in California and the house prices there were as bad as central London. However, a relative has bought a wooden house in a nice town in Astoria, Oregon for about £110k. If he had bought the same thing in rural Nebraska he would have had it for about 30% of the Oregon price.

WW, VERY good value compared to UK, that's £400k isn't it? For a house that size, wow!

WWW, indeed it was right next to Borough Market. I'm sure there are lots more examples but my mind's gone blank except for the Hugh Grant character (running a failing bookshop) who lives in a four-storey town house in the eponymous Notting Hill. I know none of us want to pay multiplex prices to watch films set in scummy late Victorian terraces entirely lined with woodchip, but one does rather pine for verisimilitude ...

£110k? Wow.

I always wonder about the value of the Little house in Stuart Little too. Sad, I know!

(bluestocking, you are Blu aren't you? And yes, Ikwym!)

No, I'm not Blu, I am Bluestocking, I don't have a Christmas name!

Oh don't get me started on Bridget Jones' flat. Right in the heart of Borough Market. In first film she was an assistant in publishing. Well, I've been there and done that, for bloody years, and salary was bang on national average wage for all the time I was doing it. So lets say in 2000 when film was made, she'd have been earning no more than £25,000. At that time her flat to rent would have been £1,000 per month, to buy £250,000 +.

As if????

But think the same applies to American houses and films WWW if any comfort. A few years ago Dh and I went to stay with old UK friends in their new house in idyllic Seattle suburb. House looked gorgeous from exterior (clapboard, swing on porch, huge front garden) but house was miniscule inside. Honestly, the size of caravan. And our friends were earning perfectly good money (one a speech therapist, the other in children's tv).

Make you feel any better?

There is a crucifix on the wall in Carmeneres link and the room next to it looks like a chapel of rest.

JanH

The rooms are very narrow in that link or is it just me ??