In general EU salaries seem very low compared to US ones. (saying EU in general, not that the UK is EU anymore).
Its important then to compare to your contemporaries, and to understand quality of life instead of absolute numbers. It's apples to oranges.
I don't really see how my standard of living would go up going from owning my own home to living in a tiny apartment. Different strokes for different folks of course but for me it would be a big drop in standard of living.
Public transport being half decent means you don't have to actively drive everywhere freeing up time for yourself, even if you have a long commute.
I don't think there's many owning their own houses in NYC or DTLA, it's weird to compare like this.
Running the numbers I couldn't afford it. Property is very expensive in the UK. We have a few of her relatives come visit and they kept telling me how big my house is, they kept bringing it up and I thought it was British sarcasm and they were being assholes because my house is less than 1200 sq feet on a third of acre. They were being genuine. My house is one of the smallest in my town, I don't think you can even legally build them this small anymore.
> I don't think there's many owning their own houses in NYC or DTLA, it's weird to compare like this.
I don't live there for the same reason, I can make more money but it will all go to paying rent for a tiny apartment.
Not to say that UK properties aren't smaller on average as not only are we obviously a much smaller country but we also have a greater proportion living in higher population density areas, as less people here are happy to live outside towns/cities than in the US.
I think you're living in a different England to me.
"half"-decent is an appropriate term.
I'll be moving soon, it's starting to get a little hairy around here. There have been a few incidents in the past few years involving drug addicts. One crashed into a utility pole on my property, another crashed into mine and several cars parked on the street and was arrested screaming on my neighbors lawn. The convenience store across the street has overdoses happening on a regular basis that EMS responds to. We often get accosted by people for money when we walk over there. Point being it's nothing like Stranger Things my kid can't ride a bike around town here.
That said I can move about an hour or two into the middle of Pennsylvania close to the area I grew up in and it's like what you picture. It's also about half the price in terms of home values and that's not factoring in the larger minimum lot sizes. This is a great starter home for a young family, but once my daughter is older I want her to live in a place were she won't have to deal with this crap.