62 posts
Our central heating system stopped working a week ago. It's no joke trying to shower in the morning in freezing cold water :o Plumber arrived today. New motorised valves, new circulation pump all working again much better than before. It's amazing how inefficient the old circulation pump must have been...I've never known our radiators to be so hot !
Marvellous
Radiators??? You have circulated water heating?
Works kinda like a circulated water shower. ;D
DreamTheaterRules — Nov 03, 2011Radiators??? You have circulated water heating?
Yes, radiators in every room plus a fire in the living room (lounge or whatever you like to call it) How do you heat your houses in the States then ?
forced air, for the most part, in newer construction.
heat exchanger down to about 40F then supplimental heat via burner (oil/gas) or electric element when colder.
there's still boiler action in the east but it tapers off as you go west, afaik.
That's interesting. So with forced air presumably there's a constant "wind" in the house ? We have a gas boiler that heats both tap water and radiator water. There are two motorised valves that are controlled by the programmer and thermostat to determine whether the tap water or the radiator water should be heated. I should have had a new pump put in years ago as I just didn't realise how inefficient the old one was. Just 30 minutes of gas gives hot radiators for ages. We also have a gas fire in the living room for when it gets really cold, but hardly ever use that.
well, sort of. it's not windy but there is circulation.
though it can be a little breezy right next to a duct opening... heh.
there is some return to the boiler method, I think, these days as natural gas becomes more cost effective than electric - radiant floor heat, that sort of thing.
yeah, the fans run on timers or based on the thermostat. They dont blow all the time, but you have circulation.
We have natural gas (furnace, not the Kabala kind. ;D )
I should add, my comments are just from my own experience - I haven't done any scientific studies on the distributions of various HVAC technology and installations around the country or anything. heh.
Yeah, not much radiator use in the west. My grandmother had a radiator and boiler in her house in Brooklyn... of course, she also had a coal chute--we've moved a little beyond that. There is air movement from the heating vents but since they are typically against the wall and on the floor, you don't really feel it.
Sheep - ;D
Around here you only see radiator heat in OLD buildings. I saw them in one house recently and it was over 100 years old. We had them in the old school when I was in grade school. WARM and toasty over by the radiator, and cold as heck on the other side of the room, during winter.
I've got central heat and air. Air is electric and heat is gas. We've got a gas fireplace in the living room as the size of the house allows for it to get a bit cold in that area sometimes in the winter. Barely use it. But in about 30 minutes that fireplace can warm up the entire house if I use the ceiling fans to help circulate the air. It's pretty amazing.
We've got twice the house we used to have and half the bill as everything is so effiecient. Fairly new construction though.
I read somewhere that most houses in the States are of wood construction, is that true ? If so that would go some-way to explaining why you get so much more house for your money than we do over here, also of course you have much more land available than we do here so that will also be a major factor in price. I've been wanting to move state-side for many years now solely on the basis of the amount of house that I could get for my money. The problem has always been transferring the business to keep the income coming in.
That's true we frame in wood and then there is a type of board that's put up on that. Then brick or vinyl, or hardy board are put on top of that. Insulate and dry wall and boom you have a house.
I have a 2,000 square foot house that I got for a little over $180,000.
We are currently looking for land....around 10 acres maybe more and building about a 3,500 square foot house on that. I can get the land for $20,000 to 80,000 depending on location. And I can build that house for around $300,000-$330,000. But I'm in KY. That same set up where charger is at would be millions for the land alone and the house would be over a million easy.
I am want land that is about half clear and half wooded. We want a mini adventureland for the kids. Camping on our own property, ATV riding, pool, detached building for Dad's toys.
That's amazingly good value. If I were to sell up here I would have around $400,000 to buy a place in the States (buy outright, no mortgage needed), and I would get about 4 times as much house as I have here plus land of course. Really tempting.
Come on over. You can come to the new BertStock.
DreamTheaterRules — Nov 04, 2011Come on over. You can come to the new BertStock.
Heck, he could BE the new BertStock! ;D
Jon — Nov 04, 2011I read somewhere that most houses in the States are of wood construction, is that true ? If so that would go some-way to explaining why you get so much more house for your money than we do over here, also of course you have much more land available than we do here so that will also be a major factor in price. I've been wanting to move state-side for many years now solely on the basis of the amount of house that I could get for my money. The problem has always been transferring the business to keep the income coming in.
Depends on where you live, Jon. Lots of places in this country, especially in the middle, are very cheap, but the closer you get to the coast, or a business center, e.g. New York City or downtown of any major metropolis, the more it costs. In tech, there are LOTS of jobs. In other fields, not so much.
Also, remember, FB lives in Kentucky. Where I live, $400k will buy you a house now that real estate has tanked, but a pretty small one. More realistically, in Silicon Valley $600k is an affordable nice home. Anywhere else where there is heavy tech, e.g. Reston, Virginia, or Austin, Texas, housing prices are much higher than the middle of the country where a lot of these guys live.
Depending on whether you LIKE the weather you have now, the Pacific Northwest is very similar, can be very affordable, with decent amounts of land and you certainly won't feel like the foreigner in the neighborhood - there's a lot of people from the UK living around here. :)
Jon
My heat is an air conditioner using forced air with heat strips in it. Since we have relatively mild winters, that unit works very well in my little 400 sq ft mobile home.
The best stuff in the states/Canada is in/under floor heating. it is the most expensive however, so mostly in the west it is forced air, in the east it is like yours, in older houses steam radiators, in newer houses back in the northeast it is baseboard either electric or circulated hot water.
In the Phoenix area metroplex you can buy a 5-10 year old 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage bank owned for ninety grand on a 7500 sq ft lot. Out of town in places like Whittman or Morristown (just north of Sun City Grand) on the way to Vegas, you can add a bedroom, and bath, and an acre of ground for that money. It is driving distance from some hi tech firms, we have Intel, and other hi tech companies I can't think of right now, Google, (a branch I think) and other media sites, as well as lots of health care facilities that need hi tech help.
CraigBert — Nov 04, 2011Depending on whether you LIKE the weather you have now, the Pacific Northwest is very similar, can be very affordable, with decent amounts of land and you certainly won't feel like the foreigner in the neighborhood - there's a lot of people from the UK living around here. :)
The weather here is ok for 6 months of the year and then it's shit for the next 6 months of the year, cold, rain, snow etc....trying to get away from that !
I'm not looking to live in or too close to a city that's for sure. Where I live at the moment is about 30 miles from London, although by American scale of space maybe that is close ? My current business is mostly managed/hosted document management where I run my own servers hosting archive and live documents for companies via bespoke document management web applications that I have written, so all I need is good ADSL/broadband connectivity and I should be able to move the business anywhere without losing customers as they don't need to know that the servers are now in the States....and I'm sure 99% of them wouldn't even care....which is good. The main thing about the $400,000 budget is that is what I would have left after selling the house here, so there would be no mortgage payments to make as I would buy for cash. Being mortgage free is the best position to be in for sure and even a smaller property in U.S. is still larger than most properties here in UK.
Quote: "there's a lot of people from the UK living around here."....damn, trying to get away from the buggers :-) Actually that doesn't bother me one way or the other. I lived in Philippines for a while a few years back, which I absolutely loved but the constant 34C and 95% humidity gets to you after a while.
the other thing to look into is taxes. how you're taxed varies quite a bit state to state.
I don't have a mortgage either and it kinda gripes me that I'm essentially paying rent to the state on land I own through property tax... but so it goes.
some states tax income, some don't... sales taxes vary... etc.
There's one state I know of that doesn't tax property on the state level... but you'd have to live in Alaska... heh.
I'm sure the tax situation can't be as bad as it is here. We pay the equivalent of $280 a month council tax which supposedly goes toward local services like police etc. Then we pay approx 50% of our income to the government in the form of income tax and national insurance....and then of course we have to pay 20% VAT on everything we buy ! We are all fucked really !
yeah, it's probably not as bad but it's not exactly out of the ballpark depending on where you live.
How much do you guys pay for electricity and gas on an average month? Our average is:-
Electric: $80 per month
Gas: $125 per month
How does that compare to you guys?
My climate control is all electric, I pay up to $225 once a year for AC about $180 the rest of the summer for AC, and from $50 to $75 a month for electric heat. But I live in the Arizona Sonoran Desert so it is hot 6 months and only a little chilly the worst of days in winter.
Jon — Nov 04, 2011
The main thing about the $400,000 budget is that is what I would have left after selling the house here, so there would be no mortgage payments to make as I would buy for cash. Being mortgage free is the best position to be in for sure and even a smaller property in U.S. is still larger than most properties here in UK.
For $400,000 you could live in a real upscale neighborhood well out of the Phoenix city metroplex Or even get something near the Sedona area in Arizona. The Northwest USA rains a whole bunch in the winters I have lived on the Coast of California near Eureka and man did it rain in the winters. Southern California would be a good place to live as well. If I had 400 grand I would be living near San Diego California. I have been all over the USA in every state but Alaska, I have lived in Northern California, Middle California, and Southern California, Spent a half year near Charger near San Jose Cali (maybe 50 miles from Charger or a little more), Boise Idaho, many cities in Florida mostly St Augustine, and spent some time in Southern Florida, I lived several years in Austin Texas, I grew up in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and Long Beach Island New Jersey which is the longest I have ever lived in one place. I also spent a lot of time in North Carolina, I have friends there whose family goes all the way back to the the Walker Sisters who were the first white women in that area near Marion NC. Of all the places I have lived, my favorite by far besides the Sonoran Desert is Southern Cali near San Diego.
Take my word for it Jon if you want nice weather the Southwest is the best place to be. Like I said above I have been all over the USA and in almost every season too. My boys and I traveled to surf and a trip across the USA from New Jersey was mandatory several times a year and we did it all by car (Van). Of all the places I have been the most accepting has been Arizona in the Sonoran Desert. And for a hundred fifty grand, you could live well out of the cities (But still within a high speed internet area) anywhere in Arizona except Scottsdale, or Care Free, or Sedona. The rest of the place is wide open and lots of foreclosures in almost every area.
Taxes in Arizona are cheap. Cheaper than anywhere I have ever lived a $200,000 house would be less than 2 grand a year in some places less in others. There is a state income tax which is usually 10% of the federal income tax. The feds would get you for about 20-30% of your income but if you are self employed you could write off many of your house expenses, and all of your equipment, and office supplies, mileage, telephone, internet service, and a host of other things like promotional items, lunches with clients, and a lot more.
Another thing is getting a Green Card to work here and a resident alien visa so you could live here, not too difficult for a Brit, and a lot easier than a Hispanic (other than Puerto Rico which is the USA too). Drop by the US embassy in London and see what they have to say.
desertbluesman — Nov 05, 2011Another thing is getting a Green Card to work here and a resident alien visa so you could live here, not too difficult for a Brit, and a lot easier than a Hispanic (other than Puerto Rico which is the USA too). Drop by the US embassy in London and see what they have to say.
That's all really useful info there and it's definitely worth a visit to the US embassy to see how easy/difficult this would be.
Housing prices over here are lower than ever, and so are mortgage rates. Come on over, neighbor!
desertbluesman — Nov 05, 2011
Take my word for it Jon if you want nice weather the Southwest is the best place to be.
118 degrees is
nice weather? That's fucking INSANELY HOT. Didn't Phoenix have it's hottest summer ever recorded this year? There's a darn good reason it's cheaper in the desert than on the coast...
That desert living is tough, Jon. I was in Arizona for a few meetings. 114. 118. 106. Doesn't matter. "But its a different kind of heat." No it fuckin' ain't.
Why leave the UK? Your economy isn't fucking crumbling, you're close to the rest of Europe, and your politicians aren't all completely insane. The only reason I could really imagine relocating to the US from the UK right now is the weather.
charger — Nov 08, 2011Why leave the UK? Your economy isn't fucking crumbling, you're close to the rest of Europe, and your politicians aren't all completely insane. The only reason I could really imagine relocating to the US from the UK right now is the weather.
Spoken by someone who doesn't live here. The economy here is fucked. Companies are closing down daily, unemployment is one million more than it was 2 years ago, the highest it's been in 30 years. Prices are up up up up and away, particularly energy (gas Electric petrol).
However, all that aside, the major factor is land and property and weather. You just get so much house and land for your money over there and because it's normal for you, then you probably don't see it.
As the whole world appears to be financially fucked, we should just wipe out all debt everywhere and start again :-)
Jon — Nov 08, 2011[quote author=charger link=1320253608/25#35 date=1320779582]Why leave the UK? Your economy isn't fucking crumbling, you're close to the rest of Europe, and your politicians aren't all completely insane. The only reason I could really imagine relocating to the US from the UK right now is the weather.
Spoken by someone who doesn't live here. The economy here is fucked. Companies are closing down daily, unemployment is one million more than it was 2 years ago, the highest it's been in 30 years. Prices are up up up up and away, particularly energy (gas Electric petrol).
However, all that aside, the major factor is land and property and weather. You just get so much house and land for your money over there and because it's normal for you, then you probably don't see it.
As the whole world appears to be financially fucked, we should just wipe out all debt everywhere and start again :-)
I hear that. I think you need to look at the kind of places that are cheap and the kind of places that are expensive before you make any real judgement about the US housing costs. We have a lot of land and a lot of it is very empty. But everywhere people really
want I'd venture to say that the prices are as expensive, or more, than the UK.
How much would an average 4 bedroom house with single garage be, both extremes of the cheapest area and the more expensive area ?
Depends. Anywhere from $100K US in some areas, to more than a million in California. Location drives the market value.
That lower end is very low compared to over here. For $100k (approx £64,000) you couldn't even buy a tiny 1 bedroom apartment in the worst area over here !
Even in a rural area? We're not talking about in the city. And remember, the UK is a very small area compared to the US... The UK is 1/40th the size of the US, it's pretty much the size of a state. You can pay well over a million for a really nice 4-bedroom in a really upscale area.
The average in my area for a 4-bedroom is in the mid 600s-700s. You have to factor in location because the US is so big that a lot of things are not located in great areas. For example, I'm in a beach town with a unique downtown, surrounded by redwood forests, and within a half hour of Silicon Valley. It's a pretty prime area both to live in and to get high paying work, and the prices reflect that.
Alternatively, I could get a house 150 miles inland, also in California, but in a much more generic area, with no ocean near, and not much beyond chain stores and restaurants. Work there pays less (a lot of people actually commute 100 or more miles to live in the cheap areas and work in the high-paying areas). A house there would cost you something closer to 150-200k.
Here ya go:
225k, less desirable area
http://www.trulia.com/property/3068396737-9844-Vista-Grande-Way-Elk-Grove-CA-95624
4 bedrooms in Saratoga, CA-- a very desirable area... 9.98 million
http://www.mlslistings.com/13388-SURREY-LN-Saratoga-CA~i19$1051596$RES
4 bedrooms in my area range from $599k to 2.5mil.
Yes, even in a rural area here $100k wouldn't buy anything. Where we live properties range from $250k to $2.8million and that price difference is within a radius of 6 miles.
charger — Nov 08, 2011Here ya go:
225k, less desirable area
http://www.trulia.com/property/3068396737-9844-Vista-Grande-Way-Elk-Grove-CA-95624
What makes that area less desirable? For the same price around here you could buy a shed !
edit: mind you, that does look like a bit of a shit-hole on the inside :-)
Jon — Nov 08, 2011How much would an average 4 bedroom house with single garage be, both extremes of the cheapest area and the more expensive area ?
4 bedroom 3 bath 3 car attached garage $125,000-$139,000 in the family neighborhoods a few blocks away from me here about 25 miles outside of Phoenix Az (But it is all one big city and we are the suburbs of Phoenix but no open ground between us). But a city in Az is not like an old world city, it is more rural than you would think a city is. Probably $400,000 in Scottsdale or Sedona Az. $425,000 in San Diego County California 20-30 miles inland. If you are near the Coast anywhere in California the prices are a premium for small lots. Inland the lots are bigger, sometimes an acre or more and the asking is a lot less.
Here is one http://www.surprisehomesforsalemls.com/9269993_0-16945-W-MANCHESTER-Drive-Surprise-AZ-85374-MLS-4636428-RES_Detail.aspx
Here is another http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/idx/mls-4672071-17904_n_170th_lane_surprise_az_85374
desertbluesman — Nov 08, 2011Here is one http://www.surprisehomesforsalemls.com/9269993_0-16945-W-MANCHESTER-Drive-Surprise-AZ-85374-MLS-4636428-RES_Detail.aspx
I just had a look at some other properties on that website and there are some fantastic bargains to be had there. Just found a 5 bedroom new build, with pool only $188,000....amazing.
You ever spent a summer in 100 degree average heat?
Houses are always cheap for a reason.