Well, the affordability and proliferation of homes like this I will have to pass onto the opinion of those now there. It still strikes me as quite an uneven value comparison. Much of what you read about on here nowadays, is how Australian housing compared to salaries is even more unaffordable than in the UK.

The base point being though, that there is an entirely different attitude to building things in this country. Be it houses or road signs. Things are built to last and when they are well maintained thats fine, when people let things go it looks shabby. Unfortunately outside of conservation areas and listed buildings there is little you can do about it.

I never said that it did. I was just a little puzzled by your rose-tinted view of the streets of Philadelphia.
What I was trying to say, is that every country has it's bad points, and what you are whining about in the UK could equally apply to anywhere except, perhaps, Shangri-la.
I've lived in the UK and the US, there are good and bad things about both countries, but the US isn't the paradise you seem to think it is. It's not that individual countries have changed, the world has changed, with vast improvements in communcations and blanket media coverage, we are made more aware of the downside of human nature that we were even 20 or 30 years ago.

I'm not quite sure how the pricing and affordability compares really.

why dont you start a thread about housing so you can go and haggle over it there and stop hijacking Em's thread?

What is rose tinted about what I said? I lived and worked their for two years, lived in center city everything I said about it is true, so what are you saying?

My position is very basic living in Philly was far more pleasant than living in London, Birmingham or Liverpool that's my opinion.

Most of the gun crime does NOT occur in town as you may know, it occurs outside and is in poor areas, often related to drugs, gangs and turf wars.

Center city is heavily policed, is populated mostly by workers or locals that can afford to live in the center as I could.

Service was beyond anything here, the range of cusine was second only to London, the place was never that crowded, streest in center city are pretty safe, I never saw fighst, puke, vandalism or other loutish behavior that one see every Friday/Saturday here in UK.

Call this "rose tinted" if you want, I call it factual.

Later

My wife has become hooked on Jack, a tad repetetive but she has fun watching it, too many cell-phones on the show for my liking!

I was in Philadelphia last summer, it certainly didn't resemble the earthly paradise you claim it to be.

I think Emma has participated in the derailment of this one

Er I didnt say it was an earthly paradise, are you stupid?

Far from it, toots.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work your point of view out.

Philadelphia = wonderful
UK = cesspit

The UK one. It makes me feel warm and cosy inside

They are WONDERFUL to look at. Wonderful and historical, and sometimes haunted too, which is because of the energy that has accumulated in these great old homes. It all adds to the feeling you get when you walk in one of these places. People call it "character". I would snap one up in a heartbeat if I had the money. I wouldn't want some sparse new bland-looking yuppie home that would fall down after a few years of living in it!

Ah, that's ok, I don't mind, it's turned interesting

I have, yes! Read back to my comments on Royal Mail!

cool - just saw the last page or so was totally by others and thought it had gone off track.

I would have replied sooner, but I was working hard yesterday, so I didn't have the time.

I'd prefer an older English house, with all its quirks. As Emma says, the history and the character alone, would set it apart from the volume built stuff. An Edwardian semi would suit me just fine, and, in an ideal world, a nice Georgian rectory!