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?

All the characters in "Friends" lived in apartments which were about ten times as big and swish as a struggling chef, unemployed waitress, massOOSE (sic), data inputter, struggling actor and junior academic could possibly afford. Although didn't Monica inherit hers from her aunt, or something?...

Same as Carrie Bradshaw. Mind you, they do have rent control in NYC.

In 2000 when I realised that I would never be able to afford a house in London on one income and fled, an elderly relative who'd lived there during the war said "but darling, haven't you looked in the parts that are quite nice but cheap, like Holland Park?" and triple

lol at Holland Park as affordable, ha ha ha.
Carrie Bradshaw does indeed come to mind. At least you could see how Miranda and the others financed their apartments. And Friends, quite.

SueW, stoppit, they're VERY nice.

Sothebys are v nice

To be fair, by the end of "Friends" they were a chef with her own restaurant, a buyer for Ralph Lauren, still a mass-OOSE (sic), a company VP (or something in advertising??), a "Professor" and a successful-ish actor. So not at all unbelievable then...

A friend of mine had one of those wooden painted houses when she lived in the US - it looked gorgeous from the photos and was perfectly affordable for a single person .

I think in general property is a lot cheaper in the US - even in places like NY. Relatives of mine bought a whole house on Manhattan a few years ago, nice area, absolutely enormous, period building, near Central Park. Don't know what they paid but there's no way an ordinary family could afford a house like that in London....

Let's all go. Let's club together and buy a small town and populate it with Mumsnetters.

We could rename it Mumsnetville.

You are all aiming too low. If I had to suffer the USA I would want this house.

If I was to move to the US I would want that house from the film 'Sleeping with the Enemy'. The big beach house with picture windows of the sea. [Mmm emoticon}

Swedes, I would want to live somewhere tasteful

I know. All those stains in the Oval Office. But with the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the White House is now probably worth about $99.70 so there should be enough change to give the place a good steam clean.

mumsnetville, ooh yes.

Agree about beach house in Sleepong with the enemy

Well, grew up in Vermont, parents still there. Houses are much cheaper than here, and much more land possible. My parents were just saying that you would be hard pressed to find a house in or around their town for more than £150K. They themselves have a 3 bed, two bath, with deck, cellar, garage, screened in porch house that is detached and completely private with 180 degree gorgeous view (Cape Cod style salt box with cedar siding) on 14 acres that cost them £7k - but they did build it themselves, 35 years ago! My dad was a engineer and then a teacher, my mum a nurse, so medium income. This was all very run of the mill.
It is harder to make a living in rural places, but there are still jobs. I think as a teacher I would be making a bit less (5k in pounds?) than I am now - but everything else is eminently more affordable.

It sounds lovely jennifersofia.

Well, it is lovely, but as a teenager, I couldn't wait to get out! To anywhere - didn't even know where.
Anyway, here now and sometimes thinking maybe I should get out of the rat race of London and go back...
Mind you, 6 months of winter puts me off!