h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

is that $1050 Per month! has been a while since I rented in this town, but when I let this place out, it was £795 Per month, and the heating/phone/gas/electric/water/sewage comes in at about £400 per month at the moment; plus a bit over £1000 per year on council tax

That sounds expensive to me! My brother-in-law bought recently in Seattle and I think he paid far less for his house than that.

Maybe it's just relative? I'm also wondering to what degree incomes and *other* expenses vary, which would affect one's outlook on what exactly constitutes expensive housing?

$1050 a month, yes. It's probably middle-range for Chicago, proper, I know a couple who pay $2200, and friends of ours who paid $4M for their house, but it has five bedrooms and three bathrooms, so of course it's going to cost a bit more.

I'd always thought of Seattle as an expensive place to live! *runs back to check list again*

Not that relocating is an option, or even desirable- I love this city and we've got spectacularly good public transport.

I always thought scandinavia was expensive to live. especially sweden. Sweden has in fact the highest suicide count in Europe..

For comparison, my house in Dublin is about 7 miles from the centre, has four bedrooms, 1400 square feet and is worth about €700,000 on the current market. People in Ireland consider that expensive for a house. Five years ago you could have got a decent house for less than 100K.

I always thought the alcohilism and suicide rate in North European countries was to do with the darkness during the Winter months.

>For comparison, my house in Dublin is about 7 miles from the centre, has four bedrooms, 1400 square feet and is worth about €700,000 on the current market.<

Sounds pretty close, in comparison.

I need to figure out the square footage of my apartment, it's not listed in the lease and a renter's insurance rep (we have about $60,000 or so in CDs and movies we need insured) was asking me that last week. Is there an easy formula for figuring that out?

>I always thought the alcohilism and suicide rate in North European countries was to do with the darkness during the Winter months.<

I thought so, too. Something similar to SAD but worse.

Chicago does sound comparable to Dublin in prices. But Dublin is 13th most expensive in the world. So it should come as no surprise that Chicago is high up on the list too.

Yeah, true. Though I suppose when you look at the awful conditions many of the world's people live in... I'll take it.

I do wonder, though, just how many people living in the most expensive cities also have comparitively high incomes, making it kind of more relative, you know?

I mean, one of my friends who lives in the south was asking me how my better half and I manage such high rent, pointing out she pays about half that. But then there's the little point that we earn about three times her income... am I making a reasonably useful point here or just speculating?

Switzerland might be expensive but I imagine the pay is also fairly high there. Whereas Ireland is expensive but the pay is quite low. And even if you compared two houses in Denmark and Ireland with the same amount of rooms and square meters, the standard of housing would be different.