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O, To Be In England...

For me this information is very enlightening !

I thought that crazy inflation, and out of control prices on apartments and buying a house was a “ American thing “.

What is transforming my area from a quiet town is that people are selling their houses in the large cities for crazy large prices and taking all that money and coming here pushing up prices on apartments, housing, and land.

Then we get a “ double whammy “ because the Country Music Industry in Nashville has made prices soar there, and all these people who can not afford to live in Nashville travel 30 miles south to our town to live.

Our car traffic is beyond a nightmare.

Our town roads were not built for these traffic jams, and our schools over crowded.
 
Er yeah. I read about the effect of ‘values’ and ‘higher taxes’ causing rich people to leave the big cities.
 
charliebrown said:
For me this information is very enlightening !

I thought that crazy inflation, and out of control prices on apartments and buying a house was a “ American thing “.

What is transforming my area from a quiet town is that people are selling their houses in the large cities for crazy large prices and taking all that money and coming here pushing up prices on apartments, housing, and land.

Then we get a “ double whammy “ because the Country Music Industry in Nashville has made prices soar there, and all these people who can not afford to live in Nashville travel 30 miles south to our town to live.

Our car traffic is beyond a nightmare.

Our town roads were not built for these traffic jams, and our schools over crowded.
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Same thing in Jersey, New Yorkers are coming here to live, resulting in no apartments or housing.
Houses in severe flood zones, in other words the basements and first floor will definitely be flooded, going for astronomical prices and selling quickly.
And the traffic is overwhelming, we do everything early in the morning to avoid the mess.
 
Ronnie,

You so right !

My wife and I have shifted some of our activities to earlier in the morning because of the crazy traffic
.
 
UK new builds these days are so small that when you go in the front door you're coming out of the back door.

My son and I are in the process of finding a place to rent together and we have very quickly decided to rule out anything built within the last 20 years or so, as the rooms are too small, the houses are too close together, and the internal walls are of paper-thin plasterboard construction.
Also (and this is something people don't seem to notice) there aren't any trees or hedges separating properties - it is all rather flimsy fencing with the adjoining properties all overlooking the garden.
 
Trevp666 said:
UK new builds these days are so small that when you go in the front door you're coming out of the back door.

My son and I are in the process of finding a place to rent together and we have very quickly decided to rule out anything built within the last 20 years or so, as the rooms are too small, the houses are too close together, and the internal walls are of paper-thin plasterboard construction.
Also (and this is something people don't seem to notice) there aren't any trees or hedges separating properties - it is all rather flimsy fencing with the adjoining properties all overlooking the garden.
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There is no privacy at all with most of the housing stock in the UK. Rabbit hutches!
 
charliebrown said:
I thought that crazy inflation, and out of control prices on apartments and buying a house was a “ American thing “.

What is transforming my area from a quiet town is that people are selling their houses in the large cities for crazy large prices and taking all that money and coming here pushing up prices on apartments, housing, and land.
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Hah! You should try living in the glorious south-west of England.

Okay, admittedly we are not SW natives, but when we sold our house in Essex, we moved lock, stock and barrel to Devon, and have been happily ensconced here ever since, using the local facilities, working locally, kids going to the local schools, and at least one of them to a local Uni, etc etc. However, we are currently cursed with people from the overcrowded SE of England buying themselves bijou second properties down here that they use maybe four times a year, complaining about cockerels crowing at dawn and agricultural smells, whilst reducing pretty villages and coastal towns to ghost areas in the winter because the actual locals can't afford the house prices and the rental market has gone to pot because all the landlords are now converting them to holiday lets...

And breathe. I'm done.
 
We had 4" of rain the other night, our immediate area was safe -
But this morning we were out shopping and drove past the company I was last working for, it had obviously been flooded badly by the creek running behind it. It's only the last 20 or so years that this flooding problem started, and it is frighteningly worse every year.
House on our block just put up for sale - $700,000, across the street from a river!
 
A lot of flooding issues in places that have not had any other development are usually due to local authorities deciding that they no longer have enough money to pay for regular river dredging and/or clearance, which leads to watercourses becoming quickly clogged and silted up, which leads to floods.
 
Trevp666 said:
A lot of flooding issues in places that have not had any other development are usually due to local authorities deciding that they no longer have enough money to pay for regular river dredging and/or clearance, which leads to watercourses becoming quickly clogged and silted up, which leads to floods.
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Well, exactly - they have not dredged our river for YEARS, leading to overspilling in just a minor rainstorm.
Add to that overbuilding on every square inch of soil, leading to no drainage / absorption areas.
And ever stronger hurricanes each year.
But don't forget to pay those property taxes! Lol
 
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bugmum said:
Hah! You should try living in the glorious south-west of England.

Okay, admittedly we are not SW natives, but when we sold our house in Essex, we moved lock, stock and barrel to Devon, and have been happily ensconced here ever since, using the local facilities, working locally, kids going to the local schools, and at least one of them to a local Uni, etc etc. However, we are currently cursed with people from the overcrowded SE of England buying themselves bijou second properties down here that they use maybe four times a year, complaining about cockerels crowing at dawn and agricultural smells, whilst reducing pretty villages and coastal towns to ghost areas in the winter because the actual locals can't afford the house prices and the rental market has gone to pot because all the landlords are now converting them to holiday lets...

And breathe. I'm done.
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Friends in Cornwall tell me that a lot of the second-homers fled down there at the start of the pandemic and are still blocking local roads with their food delivery vans.
 
Trevp666 said:
UK new builds these days are so small that when you go in the front door you're coming out of the back door.

My son and I are in the process of finding a place to rent together and we have very quickly decided to rule out anything built within the last 20 years or so, as the rooms are too small, the houses are too close together, and the internal walls are of paper-thin plasterboard construction.
Also (and this is something people don't seem to notice) there aren't any trees or hedges separating properties - it is all rather flimsy fencing with the adjoining properties all overlooking the garden.
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Having given this a bit of thought (and working in the construction industry) I'd probably go for a (shock horror) 60s or 70s house. You get modern materials, reasonable build quality, no weird Victorian roof / drainage construction techniques and unlike modern houses you'll get big windows, lots of light, and decent space standards inside. These days there seems to be an assumption you can get by without a proper garden as long as you squeeze some tiny windowless ensuites in or something.
 
Trevp666 said:
I saw a new build house with a 3rd bedroom which had the dimensions 6' x 5'. I'd like to see anyone fit a bed in there!
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Folding bed or Murphy bed?
 
My house has three bedrooms, in theory. Part of the smaller one was taken when the bathroom was created. There's still room for a single bed but not much more.

Second home owners are known as DFLs round here - Down From London!
 
My corner of the South East.

20220410_225158.jpg
 
bugmum said:
Hah! You should try living in the glorious south-west of England.

Okay, admittedly we are not SW natives, but when we sold our house in Essex, we moved lock, stock and barrel to Devon, and have been happily ensconced here ever since, using the local facilities, working locally, kids going to the local schools, and at least one of them to a local Uni, etc etc. However, we are currently cursed with people from the overcrowded SE of England buying themselves bijou second properties down here that they use maybe four times a year, complaining about cockerels crowing at dawn and agricultural smells, whilst reducing pretty villages and coastal towns to ghost areas in the winter because the actual locals can't afford the house prices and the rental market has gone to pot because all the landlords are now converting them to holiday lets...

And breathe. I'm done.
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That appears to have been a problem for decades in Devon, Cornwall and such places. Not much any one can do anything about it. I suppose owners were happy to get inflated prices for their property, but I wonder where they all moved to.
 
Trevp666 said:
UK new builds these days are so small that when you go in the front door you're coming out of the back door.

My son and I are in the process of finding a place to rent together and we have very quickly decided to rule out anything built within the last 20 years or so, as the rooms are too small, the houses are too close together, and the internal walls are of paper-thin plasterboard construction.
Also (and this is something people don't seem to notice) there aren't any trees or hedges separating properties - it is all rather flimsy fencing with the adjoining properties all overlooking the garden.
Click to expand...
There seems to have been a period 20/30 years ago in the North West when demand for new housing wasn't as great as it appears to be now. Developers therefore had to be more imaginative in how they created new developments.

Both my sons live on that era estates where streets and roads were built in a wholly none linear manner so you look out onto 2 or 3 houses only . Old trees were left in situ and new ones planted and as much other greenery planted as was physically possible. Totally different now where developers seem to throw up what appears to be row after row of boxes with a door and windows with no attempt at making them in any sense attractive, or making them blend in with surroundings.

All this because local authorities are required to allow the construction of dwellings to meet government targets. (where has this demand suddenly come from?)

Thousands of these horrific structures are being thrown up in our area. I doubt that they will survive 50 years let alone the 100 plus that a high proportion of housing in the north has already lasted.
 
PeteS said:
There seems to have been a period 20/30 years ago in the North West when demand for new housing wasn't as great as it appears to be now. Developers therefore had to be more imaginative in how they created new developments.

Both my sons live on that era estates where streets and roads were built in a wholly none linear manner so you look out onto 2 or 3 houses only . Old trees were left in situ and new ones planted and as much other greenery planted as was physically possible. Totally different now where developers seem to throw up what appears to be row after row of boxes with a door and windows with no attempt at making them in any sense attractive, or making them blend in with surroundings.

All this because local authorities are required to allow the construction of dwellings to meet government targets. (where has this demand suddenly come from?)

Thousands of these horrific structures are being thrown up in our area. I doubt that they will survive 50 years let alone the 100 plus that a high proportion of housing in the north has already lasted.
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Homes built before the 1860s could be the most appalling slums because there was little regulation about their quality, siting, services, amenities etc.

Most of our brick terraced streets date from after the 1860s and were solid enough to be modernised later.

As you say, homes built 100 years ago in the 1920s are still standing because they were well-made. Modern ones don't seem half as sturdy.
 
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PeteS said:
Thousands of these horrific structures are being thrown up in our area. I doubt that they will survive 50 years let alone the 100 plus that a high proportion of housing in the north has already lasted.
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escargot said:
Homes built before the 1860s could be the most appalling slums because there was little regulation about their quality, siting, services, amenities etc.

Most of our brick terraced streets date from after the 1860s and were solid enough to be modernised later.

As you say, homes built 100 years ago in the 1920s are still standing because they were well-made. Modern ones don't seem half as sturdy.
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I think that the period around 1935/1955-ish produced the best, very solid buildings. By the late 30's cavity walls had come in (although not insulated, they still helped to reduce damp inner walls) and the bricks are proper bricks. Very solid and with small mortar joints in between. The only downside was that the more insulated, 'breeze' type blocks for inner walls weren't used then, or rarely. Floorboards and joists were far superior too in my opinion. Probably over-engineered to be fair.
 
Floyd1 said:
I think that the period around 1935/1955-ish produced the best, very solid buildings. By the late 30's cavity walls had come in (although not insulated, they still helped to reduce damp inner walls) and the bricks are proper bricks. Very solid and with small mortar joints in between. The only downside was that the more insulated, 'breeze' type blocks for inner walls weren't used then, or rarely. Floorboards and joists were far superior too in my opinion. Probably over-engineered to be fair.
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Immediately post war houses are very good. Extremely solid, great space standards, generally big gardens. There are big swathes of 50s local authority housing that will stand for ever. The only issues are that they're a bit dark inside compared to 60s / 70s stuff and that people in the 50s sure did love their asbestos.

Most of the Victorian stuff I've seen round here seems to have been built from rubble by total cowboys. Then as now people built to a price.
 
Just to leaven the building talk a bit, here's the area I grew up in (not quite England but just over the border). It'll be at its best when the whitethorn comes out next month.


IMGP0159-02.jpeg
 
BS3 said:
Most of the Victorian stuff I've seen round here seems to have been built from rubble by total cowboys. Then as now people built to a price.
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That's odd. I usually find Victorian era houses to be well built, albeit a tad damp here and there. Just not (necessarily) designed to our needs today though of course. (I am speaking of brick built houses though, not stone).
 
Floyd1 said:
That's odd. I usually find Victorian era houses to be well built, albeit a tad damp here and there. Just not (necessarily) designed to our needs today though of course. (I am speaking of brick built houses though, not stone).
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Well, it depends. In my particular area the (brick) houses were clearly run up quickly for industrial workers, and are cheaply built of poor quality materials. They're still far more solid than anything from the last 15 years though!
 
BS3 said:
Well, it depends. In my particular area the (brick) houses were clearly run up quickly for industrial workers, and are cheaply built of poor quality materials. They're still far more solid than anything from the last 15 years though!
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Ah, yes. Understood.
 
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