HELP ! New here... Can I afford to move?

My wife and I need to leave Colorado/altitude due to a health matter with one of our twins.  My wife is British and we are considering moving to Plymouth to be near her family, but I am astounded at the disparity between pay and housing costs.  I have calculated the ratio of median income to median home prices for the USA, Baltimore, MD, where I have a job offer, Boulder, CO where we live, and the UK.  The USA is a "3.2", Baltimore 3.6, Boulder a whopping 4.0, but the UK is a 6 !!! 

How do you all do it?  Can anyone afford to buy a home on such meager wages?  In the US, we can almost afford for my wife to stay home with the kids, I cannot see how that would be possible in the UK.  Are we potentially killing ourselves financially?

PLEASE... any insight would be helpful, we must decide what to do soon...

I don't have much advice to offer as we're a double income family with no kids. I can tell you that we can't afford to buy BUT we live in the London suburbs which is one of the most expensive places we could possibly be! In other areas of the UK you would probably be fine.

Anyway, by replying to this it will bump the thread up - maybe someone else will see it who can be of more help.

Good luck!

Hi TwinsDaddy!

Have a look at the thread I responded to a few lines down called 'Cost of Living' - You basically need to do alot of evaluating and research. I agree with you in terms of the 'general' view that the Salary levels are laughably low compared to the cost of living in the UK. However, as this board's members will tell you, it is possible to move over here and live reasonably well - It's all about 'balancing'. One view of course is to say 'why should you have to compromise?' but if you think about it, anywhere you are involves an element of compromise.

We all here are ready to help with questions you may have as best as possible, ultimately, you should decide for yourself along with yer missus if the move over is viable for your family and your goals in life.

good luck! and fire away with any questions!

Cheers !Dennis! West London & Slough UK!

Anne is right. You need to pick and choose your area carefully. Housing prices in Plymouth are, overall, probably cheaper (there are a couple of Plymouth residents on here who might be able to offer some insight), but, like most of the southwest of England, the job opportunities are not nearly as good as they would be in the London area and they don't pay as well. What do you do? Have you researched finding employment in your field in Plymouth?

But, do be careful with Baltimore, too. As a former resident hoping to return at some point... I can tell you that property prices there have skyrocketed in the last few years and at last check, the housing market was moving so fast, it was almost impossible to keep up.

Hey, thinking of moving to Baltimore, eh?  That's my home city!  If you don't mind me asking, who would you be working for there if you took the job?

At last look, the average house in Baltimore has moved up to nearly $270,000, whereas the average UK house is something like £190,000.  Some friends in Baltimore (Patterson Park area) sold their rowhouse last year for $480,000 (after having bought it for $160,000 a fair few years back).

I would really research the Plymouth area for work if you haven't already got some places in mind or a job offer.  While one of the biggest cities in that part of the world it's won't be anywhere near the same scale as London or even Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, etc.

it depends where you live. the north of england, scotland, wales, and the southwest (where plymouth is) are much cheaper than london, the southeast, and central and eastern england.

the salary/house price ratio is much closer to the magic 3.0 up north than down south where, yes, it is closer to 6.0, and in places like london and the south coast, it's more like 8.0.

of course, you could always move to SoCal where in places like LA, orange, and san diego counties the ratio is more like 10+!! (and that may be an understatement) no kidding, average salaries in the $50,000 range and average house prices now at $600,000+ (for a condo!). a decent 4 bedroom family home there costs over a million dollars!

so, at least parts of the US (cal, NY) make england seem a lot cheaper, and it will be if you're moving from these places. the problem though is that we do not have the large disparity in cost of living between regions which means less geographic mobility, which can mean the same as a promotion or large salary increase back in the US.

if i were to return to the UK i would probably live up north or in scotland. as a lawyer i could make maybe 50K in london, or 30K on the southcoast where my family come from. however, up north, although i'd only make 25K, i could buy a 3 bed semi-detached home for 100K on that salary (4.0x) - the same home would cost me 200K down south (6.5x) and over 300K in london (6.0x and rising).