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[–] 1 point 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (7 children)

I just looked up housing sites in the US, apparently Zillow is popular. Texas is a big state and stuck my house price in as an upper limit.

First result is fucking huge. It has more bathrooms than I have bedrooms. And its in a place I have heard of despite living on another continent. Most people 50+ miles away will have never even heard of the town I live in.

This is what you consider to be a bad housing market?

Edit: scrolling through more. They look very soulless, but are fucking massive. Why do so many have the garage door as the main front and centre of the house with the actual door tucked off to the side?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Assuming you're in the UK:

    Your minimum wage is nearly triple ours.

    Your median wage is 1.3x Texas'.

    You pay less tax than in Texas.

    You pay less for healthcare than anywhere in the US.

    Your property taxes (council taxes) are lower than Texas.

    You have lower interest rates for mortgages than the US.

    You have cheaper, more fuel efficient vehicles than the US.

    Your car insurance is less than a quarter US car insurance rates.

    Your food is literally half the cost of US food.

    So yes, your incredibly cheap life with your incredibly high wages makes your housing market much better than ours.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (3 children)

    Most people in USA suburbs leave from and return to their house in a car 99% of the time, so effectively the garage door is the front door of the house, and the actual front door is mostly vestigial, and kept for ritual purposes.

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  • [–] 3 points 18 hours ago

    There's a house in my neighborhood that doesn't even have stairs leading to the front door. Like, the door is three feet in the air, no way to actually use it for anything except breaking your ankle while drinking at night.

    It is a good way to keep the Jehovah's Witness and the Mormons at bay, to be fair.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    the us is relatively spread out, all those cheaper areas no one wants to live there

    and distance can be deceptive, growing up 20miles to work could take 1.25 hrs+ each way, check the google estimated travel time during rush hour to the city center / likely work locations

    that much time in traffic eats your life

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