drifter

Has anyone made the move from Switzerland to Colorado?

I've been offered a job with about 75% of my Swiss salary in a town north of Denver (which I reckon equates to a bit of a pay rise, given costs of living and included benefits). There are a couple of bits of help I'd really appreciate;

1. What's the difference in cost of living?
2. Any suggestions on nice neighbourhoods within 30 minutes drive from Louisville?

Thanks!

And yes - I tried searching the forums, but didn't really get anywhere...

scrubbedexpat099

Boulder?

Louisville itself and Broomfield are both dormitory towns.

To answer the Swiss question you would need to know the cost of living in Switzerland.

Ray

I dont recall anybody making a move from Switz to US

Even Toblerone is US owned

Michael

As you can see from the first chart in the following link, the Swiss Franc is currently about 55% overvalued as compared to the US$. So on an average, it will cost about 55% more (at the current exchange rate) to live in Switzerland than in the US.

http://fx.sauder.ubc.ca/PPP.html

If you were living in Geneva or Zurich, they are now classified in the top ten most expensive cities in the world from a recent poll. New York City currently only ranks 29th according to the poll.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10...e_cities/1.htm

The creator of the poll hasn't put out for free yet the cost differences between the most expensive cities so there isn't any way to compare US cities to cities in the poll (New York City always has a cost of living index of 100) but the following links allow you to compare the cost of living between US cities.

http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/...alculator.aspx
http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costo...tofliving.html

So if you compare against New York City (Manhattan), New York City (Brooklyn), or New York City (Queens) or you should get some idea of the costs.

drifter

Thanks, Michael.

I found the source for the international comparisons; a UBS document, here; http://www.ubs.com/1/ShowMedia/wealt...hne_2009_e.pdf

Taking the area I live in at about 105% of Zurich and gtaking Zurich costs at about 105% of New York prices gives costs here as about 110% of New York's. Then, the cost of living in Denver is estimated at about 47% of the NYC cost, or 58% in Boulder.

So; the cost of living in...
Denver is about 43% of Swiss costs (100*0.47 * 1/(1.05*1.05))
Boulder is about 53% of Swiss costs

AKA a very healthy pay rise!

Michael

Unfortunately none of those most expensive cities surveys appears to explain what is considered New York City. Is it just Manhattan or is it the average of all the boroughs? It may be better to use Los Angeles or San Francisco as the base city and calculate Denver and Boulders cost of living against that and then compare against Zurich.

Then there is also the change in currency from last year (I believe the Swiss franc was only overvalued about 45% then as compared to about 55% now) to this year since New York City was in the top ten most expensive cities last year and is only 29th this year (it was probably primarily because of currency exchange is why NYC dropped in the ranking). It would probably be more accurate if we had this year indexes between the most expensive cities and use another American city (other than NYC) as the base calculation.

Or you could possibly search for Mercers 2009 worlds most expensive city survey (the most common survey) with the indexes and use that as a comparison and use the exchange rate between the Swiss franc and the US$ when the survey was taken to calculate a more accurate cost of living comparison (using the difference between the exchange rate then and now). You could also use the 2009 UBS survey and calculate the exchange rate difference between then and now to get a more accurate estimate.

Swisstony

I don't live in CO

But I did move from Switzerland to US (NJ)

I can say therefore that, broadly, living in NJ is cheaper than living in Switzerland.

This would be true for:
groceries
restaurants
cars
gas
housing
utilities

on the other hand, we find we have costs here we never had in the switzerland. These include:

summer camps for kids
much more expensive health insurance
property taxes

Given that I would believe (as others have suggested already) that much of CO may be cheaper than more metropolitan areas of the US (like NJ), then you will probably be able to maintain a standard of living at least as good as that which you enjoyed in Switzerland, should you choose to take this new job in CO, from a purely material perspective anyway.....

Hope this helps

Tony

Octang Frye

Your post has more holes than, um, some form of cheese.
Denver is metropolitan.

When describing New Jersey, you're confusing the term "metropolitan" with "ghastly place". I saw brown snow in New Jersey. And you have those Jersey Shore guidos. We have marmots.

Colorado for the win.

zargof

I thought you said Colorado was full.

Octang Frye

Oh yeah. Very full. Nothing to see here. <whistles>

In Jersey's defense, I enjoyed Garden State.

scrubbedexpat099

Boulder is not that much different cost wise for SE England if that helps.

There are cheaper areas.

Tarkak9

The first question I have is what is your lifestyle like? ie what do you enjoy and want from a community etc.

Louisville is a favorite and an attractive area to live for many... being voted "best place to live" on those silly surveys, lists etc is a joke imo as they are so subjective and also, things don't change year to year so if you're #1 one year.. why aren't you #1 the following year or even make the list?!?!

People coming into the area usually gravitate towards Boulder, then next on the list is Louisville... after that, Lafayette. Given a choice between Broomfield and L'sville, I'd pick L'sville.. hands down; but that's just me.

30 mins from Louisville puts you as far as Longmont to the North and Westminster more to the South... but, I'd stay in Boulder County.

Superior. Next!!....
Broomfield, depends on where imo
Lafayette, meh... depends on where but its tail coating L'sville and its obviously not Lsville. Median house price 09 - 315k.
Boulder... Median house price for 09 - 525k. entry level is around the low 400's and there are some right sh!tholes too for that money.
L'sville... Median house price for 09 - 355k. Rule of thumb, more for the money.

hope this helps.

scrubbedexpat099

Longmont is in Boulder County

crosscountryrider

Hi ,
Boulder County and Jefferson county are the most expensive counties in Colorado in terms of Property Taxes.

In terms of housing Boulder has a building stop and they already high property prices going through the roof in the whole neighbourhood.

This one I know for sure because we have Real estate company.

I don' tknow about Grocery and other costs but I guess Insurance for Cars and property will be higher.

Good places to live in general Mountain Towns like Nederland ; Ward.
For a more suburban Lifestyle you should consider the north of Lyons -not the Boulder part.

Also if you prefer Jeffco ( not too bad) Arvada would be good for Suburban living. Coal Creek Canyon and Eldorado springs are good for mountain Living.

In mountain communities you should be pick up a reasonable priced house or short sale. Hence the winters are long a lot of house seller let you rent first and buy after you made a full winter and summer.
Beauty of the mountain living is you usualy get land (acres) with your house and you are close to skiing!

Also a good area to live is Gilpin County -North. The property taxes are low
due to gambling in Black hawk - $1200 in comparision to $4000 in Boulder for the same sized property.

You can send me PM and I will give you more information.

Kind Regards
CCR

scrubbedexpat099

House prices are the bigger issue. Not the rate.

Nowhere I know is going through the roof. A friend of mine gave up trying to sell and rented.

No

.

3 men and a dog in Ward and well beyond his commute requirements.

Surburban? Have you been up there?

.

Arvada is a suburb of Denver. Coal Creek Canyon - the wind.....

Cross country skiing, the best downhill is west of the divide.

Confusing size with price, and the developers have ruined Black Hawk. I was at a meeting where there was a rep from the City, they are hurting financially.

we have Real estate company