Mic1

I think that to try and answer the question as to whether it's more expensive to reside in the UK or USA, there are simply just too many variables and we're not comparing apples with apples.

angelman

Relocation package sounds pretty reasonable to me. One caveat, that lump sum and possibly the the housing is counted is taxable and I think at 40%. I believe that a single flight is not taxed and certain other things, the rest is taxed. Things may have changed but something to check.
Cost of living is high in LA, comparable to London.
I would say a household salary of say $100k is a minimum. Health insurance is a critically important thing. By way of example, many people might pay between $200-$800/MONTH for a family plan through their employer. A great health plan such as one I had with my union was $700/YEAR for a family. My current employer offers a health insurance for $0/year. With all of these, the costs are just the beginning, you have co pays and co insurances. A trip to ER/A&E with good insurance might be between $100-300, urgent care maybe $50-70. My wife had the misfortune of having to go to an out of network Hospital in an emergency and that was $3000 (insurance paid 50%).
Utility bills - my area of LA has private electric company (socal Edison) and with an electric car we can easily hit $400/month but we barely run our AC. Without the electric car but running AC in the summer again we would hit $300-400/month. Out water/sewage bill is around $125/month and we use very little water - we stopped watering the garden. You will also need to buy a car and run that. Insurance is much more expensive than UK I found. AAA (Like the AA) was able to take into account my UK driving record.

robtuck

More reasonable would be comparisons of City/location - someone moving from London is going to have a very different view to someone moving from Berwick. Equally, the information they need is going to be very different if they are moving to Brooklyn vs. Ocala, FL.

As an example, I'd say my standard of living rose - I moved from Swindon to Newnan, GA. Anywhere within 60 miles of me in the UK was more expensive to live, Newnan is considerably less, but equals back once you count in Property Tax, Car Insurance and Electric bills (over $300a month in summer). As I got my salary increased to account for the exchange rate at the time plus a bit more, it worked out well. That would be a different story if I had moved to Buckhead/Sandy Springs, both within the same Atlanta orbit but very different cost of living.

angelman

London to Los Angeles is somewhat comparable. Rent is not disimilar. You might get a bit more space in LA than London for the money though the quality of interiors/design is usually pretty sad. A 3 bedroom house where I live in LA which is a very suburban, home counties kind of area is about $3000-4000/month. I have no idea how anyone affords that actually. When I first moved from London to LA my salary was quadrupled. I thought I would live like a king in Beverly Hills. I was shocked to find that I could barely afford a one bed apartment even 20 years ago and the apartments I did find were 70s and 80s tastic and not in a good way. Even though my salary is much higher here I find that I am constantly struggling to pay the bills and keep afloat and I do not live an extravagant lifestyle by any means. I still don't understand why really. I can only imagine it's due to the cost of running cars, health care etc. I find food expensive even compared to UK now though there are cheaper supermarkets that sell often pretty low quality food but very cheap. A packet of crappy sausages is now hitting $7 for 6!

wisygreen

Regarding electrical costs: It depends entirely which company district you are in. We are in SMUD and pay half of what PG&E charge just half a mile up the hill. The same with all utilities. Our adjacent town is certainly more attractive and the cost of property less but the cost utilities is crippling. To make matters worse PG&E now turn off the power when the wind blows (or is even just forcast to blow) so as not to cause fires. It then takes a day or too to get the grid back up and working. Make sure you do your due diligence before choosing an area to live in.

angelman

It can be surprising coming from the UK which pretty successfully managed to privatise utilities (at least compared to California). Utilities are a monopoly, at times they are a public utility company run by a city, in other less urban areas utilities are provided by private companies who are often far more expensive and often provide crappier service. I remember moving to my current place and watching the bin men drive straight on by my house as they picked up every other person's rubbish. It took 3 weeks for me to find out that the trash service was private and I had to register. Weirdly the houses across the road from me are in the city limits and have completely different utilities provided by the city (much cheaper) than on my side of the road. I have the priviledge of paying for the decommissioning of the san onofre nuclear power station which will be billions $ because when they built it, they built one of the pipes wrong and the whole power station had to be shut down early.. There is no choice in who provides your utilities unlike the UK

kevntrace

Located in the East Bay Area (so temps can get as high as 113F in the summer). Typical suburban tract home approx 3200 sq ft. Gas for stove top, hot water and furnace. Electric for oven, A/C and everything else. Both gas and electric by PG&E. If my combined bill is $300 or less per month, I consider that a win. We keep the temperature at 70F in winter and 74F in summer. No solar system installed. No electric vehicle to charge. My bill can get to $700+ if we have a cold month in winter or a hot month in summer. I would say my average is around $450 per month. It is not cheap.