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Original poster

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?

118 replies

WideWebWitch · 29/12/2007 21:10

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?

OP posts:
Original poster
WideWebWitch · 29/12/2007 21:41

Ah sorry bluestocking for mixing you up, I agree with you.

lol DH, well quite re her salary etc. Even on The Apprentice when they put them up in an enormous white stucco Holland Park mansion and say something like "this is the lifestyle the winner can expect" and I hink no it's bloody well not, not on £100k it's not! On £100k even at 5 x salary it's not anything exceptional in London!

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ahundredtimes · 29/12/2007 21:42

Yes I thought that too. I was expecting central staircase, Mum at the bottom looking up proudly at daughter descending in prom dress, vast rooms with wooden floors on either side. Those houses must exist? I'm going to find one.

DaphneHarvey · 29/12/2007 21:42

Bluestocking - that house in Notting Hill belonged to writer Richard Curtis at the time (or at least the exterior and front door shots did), and by then he was extremely wealthy man (he co-wrote Blackadder, and The Vicar of Dibley, and all by himself Four Weddings etc, and also partner of Emma Freud, not short of a bob or two herself) so hardly the sort of house an impoverished book shop owner could possibly own.

Richard Curtis makes me want to tear my hair out, actually.

Hallgerda · 29/12/2007 21:42

I lived in Nashville for a while - I had the impression that housing costs were relatively cheap (I was paying more for phone calls home than I was in rent) but there were other costs (e.g. medical insurance) that we don't necessarily have here which could turn very nasty.

ahundredtimes · 29/12/2007 21:45

I want this one

Original poster
WideWebWitch · 29/12/2007 21:45

Richard Curtis lives on a different planet to the rest of us I think. Although, having said that, lots of us on mn got hand written apologies when we wrote and complained aobut the use of the word 'spastic' in ? what film? Might have been Love Actually I think. I wonder if it was cut from subsequent cuts? Anyway, his response was good. Maybe Emma F's a mumsnetter.

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ahundredtimes · 29/12/2007 21:47

I went to a party at that house once. It was nice. I wish we all lived in the films and then I could live in big clapboard house with wooden floors and and and car pool.

Original poster
WideWebWitch · 29/12/2007 21:47

I lived in Notting Hill years ago but could afford it as I was single and childless and earning a decent salary. And actually come to think of it it was the bayswater end of Notting hill. And it was a cupboard of a shared flat!

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Original poster
WideWebWitch · 29/12/2007 21:48

Nice house in yr link 100x

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ahundredtimes · 29/12/2007 21:48

Still you lived there and that's something. Now, where is Somerset County? That's where I'm going to live in that green house.

WendyWeber · 29/12/2007 21:49

Virginia, darling. S of DC.

DaphneHarvey · 29/12/2007 21:49

Ooooooh what a thought re. Emma F. Was friends with her a long time ago. We went on holiday to Lindos when we graduated from University. (Also Helen Fielding was R Curtis's ex, I believe).

Original poster
WideWebWitch · 29/12/2007 21:50

They have children don't they? Will see if I can find the thread.

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ahundredtimes · 29/12/2007 21:50

Oooh it's WW. You helped me re-locate once before. And here I am again, idly drifting about wanting to live in America.

So erm, Somerset. Nice?

WendyWeber · 29/12/2007 21:50

25 mins to Charlottesville, wherever the hell that is.

You would need money to live there, never mind having a job

WendyWeber · 29/12/2007 21:51

I have no idea about Somerset (that'll be the county. Half the counties in the US are called Somerset, prob. When they're not called Suffolk)

DaphneHarvey · 29/12/2007 21:52

£500,000 will buy you a small and probably a bit scruffy 3 bed terraced house with miniscule garden in my not spectacular corner of SE London right now.

Original poster
WideWebWitch · 29/12/2007 21:52

here's the thread. It was a decent and heartfelt apology from R Curtis

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Original poster
WideWebWitch · 29/12/2007 21:52

That sounds like a song 25 mins to Charlottesville

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bubblerock · 29/12/2007 21:53

Do the houses last in the US though? Have you seen them being ripped apart in a few minutes on extreme makeover - then they put it back up in a couple of days, bit like prefabs! Usually look bloody gorgeous though

DaphneHarvey · 29/12/2007 21:53

I think they have 4. A dd and three dses.

ahundredtimes · 29/12/2007 21:53

Charlottesville has 4150 streetlamps

I heart Charlottesville, it is very well organised.

Aitch · 29/12/2007 21:54

i've always wanted to buy a house from woman ooooh you make my motor run.

WendyWeber · 29/12/2007 21:55

Well done, darling, you found the right Charlottesville this time

ahundredtimes · 29/12/2007 21:56

lol WW, that was awful wasn't it? I was all set to go to Meat County or something. And that town hall! I haven't got over the shock of it.

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