Lack of houses on the market

Gee, I'm drooling over most of those houses shown (except the elevator house!)  Nothing like any of those in our immediate area.

Yeah, I was a little surprised at the house prices around Leeds. When we first started looking I thought it would get noticeably cheaper as you got near Leeds.....not really. The house we just put an offer on is detached and about 910sf....including the small garage. So the house itself will only be 850sf or so. By American standards it's really small......but a detached house in Harrogate for that price is hard to find.....and near easy walking into perfect dog walking area (couple square miles of fields/woods very handy...within 100 yards) and easy loops for me to walk 5+ miles without having to leave trails. Don't think they are going to give us an answer until at least Monday though....somebody else is looking at it. But....we are cash buyers so we have that going for us.

We mentioned the elevator house to the guy showing the house this morning (same company).....he agreed that getting that house into shape would really cost a lot. They evidently had already turned down £190+193K for that beast, and we wouldn't even think of paying more than £190 with the work that needed doing.

Fingers crossed for you on the house. Ours is <1000 SF, which seems really small compared to or quite ordinary houses in the US. BUT - less to clean, convenient to everything (we walk almost everywhere) and for just the 2 of us, what more do we need?

This was a lifestyle choice and we are quite happy with out decision.

I'm fine with a smaller house, I had an absolute minimum of 700sf which this one would be more than....like I said...probably around 850 when you take the garage out of the calculation. With just the 2 of us it's fine. Although.....possibly my wife's daughter may stay for a while to help her save some money for her own place....that could be a bit painful in a house this size. She is a nurse working in Leeds.....often works nights. £250K WAS going to be the absolute most we would spend.....but with some Stamp Duty, Solicitors, Inspection etc it will be more obviously.

We went over to the semi that is attached to this place earlier. It is really nicely put together......and if it wasn't literally attached to my wife's parents we would consider that.

Less is more, IMHO.  Consider that in our present house there are five wash basins, a shower, bath tub and two toilets to keep clean!  And there are only two of us.  That, and the the fact there are nineteen steps on the stairs from ground floor to first and it is necessary to navigate five steps down and two up to get from bedroom to loo!  Not good for aging knees.

The house we put an offer on has a small bathroom downstairs and one upstairs....I really hate having to walk upstairs just to pee. A perfect house for us......a 2 bedroom bungalow all on one floor with an attached garage with inside access and a decent sized back garden......they make VERY few bungalows with an attached/integral garage. We are sitting here freezing again today in my wife's parents house (they went on a bus holiday to Scotland!!)...her father still insists the electric heaters on the wall are the best way to heat.....and only has them set to come on for a little while in the morning and then again for a little while at 3pm. I have a long sleeve t-shirt, a thick sweatshirt and a larger fleece/pile sweatshirt over the top of that.

I really wish I could move my house back in the US over here lock, stock, and barrel!  In 1950 my father had what he called a "Cape Cod ranch" built.  He designed it himself: kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and bathroom all on one floor with a "breezeway" connecting to a garage.  About ten years ago I had it all updated, converting the breezeway to a dining extension to the kitchen and a small sitting room.  The walkout basement got two more bedrooms with big closets and a
bathroom with shower.  It's a good little house    And warm, I might add!

Offer taken.....guess we will be owning a house soon. Well.....it's the UK.....it doesn't happen very fast. Damn.....there was a nice couch in a store we walk by for £1600 (makes me twitch to think about that much for a couch) that would fit just right.....

BostonDiner---yeah, the house we just sold outside Spokane WA was a single floor 1700sf ranch style with double garage, 1,000sf workshop (damn, bigger than the house we just bought!!), and an awesome view over the river/lake......and it cost us a whole $205K.

Congrats on your house offer being accepted!