ScousePete

Do you ever wish you had bought? The mortgage would be almost paid off and your monthly payments would probably be next to nothing.

That's a long time to rent :scared:

cuckoofrommars

For those of you who fancy doing something really exciting try this amazing site and look at the expedition pages. Basically you get to go t osome remote wonderful place anywhere in the world and help with conservation for a few weeks.

www.earthwatch.org

This seems like the coolest thing in the world to do.

Also if you fancy going somewhere around the world to live the culture and improve your languages try the following one. My wife has been on one to Japan and loved it, and she knows little Japanese.

http://www.nrcsa.com/

Rete

Wishing and being able to do were two different things. I was a single mom raising two children without child support and working two jobs so affording a home or even to buy my apartment was an unattainable goal for me back then. Now I would not buy in this area. Westchester County New York is out of sight and truly unreasonable in terms of real property costs. For example, I always loved a small little house on a triangular corner lot. It finally went up for sale. $295,000 for less than a 1/3 acre, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, fp, no garage and no driveway. It was bought as is for the asking price.

Unreal.

But then again my apartment is rent stabilized and my rent is perhaps 1/2 of what units of the same square footage goes for. To buy would be $150,000.

Rete

effi

Which part of Germany did you live in? We lived just outside Munchengladbach for 4 years. I loved it there, so much to do and see, we travelled all over.

Franklin

Does anyone know anything about Oro Valley, NW of Tucson; more specifically, about five miles north west of Tucson, close to the Catalina foothills? Pros and cons e.g. cost of living. Anyone live/work in the area? Information is bound to be subjective, but I would still appreciate reading views and opinions of others who know the area. Alternatively, please drop me PM/email. Cheers.

DaveC

I live near there for a few years when my dad was based at JHQ in Rheindahlen and then later on at RAF Bruggen. Every holiday my folks took us somewhere, we went all over Europe from Sweden to Yugoslavia.

edwords

I live about an hour, 90 minutes away.
Oro Valley is nice. Beautiful views, upscale. The area is growing very rapidly. Cons: Traffic and related problems that come with almost uncontrolled growth.

inquisitive40

I have been 4 years in the US, have not been home in all that time and so I am not sure how I will feel after retunring home on holiday BUT at present I am very happy here in Califronia. I never had any dream of living in the US and really at age 35 I had not even a desire to visit the US.
Now having living here I find it in so many ways very little different with the exception of the weather, to living in Ireland. Sometimes I do think about how far away I am from Ireland but it does not register a lot of the time that I am 1000s of miles away from my land of origin. I do agree with the earlier poster that happiness is a frame of mind and can be achieved anywhere one chooses though.
On whether I would move back to Ireland, if something happened to my wife to be, I probably would move back to Ireland,, the weather would be the only difficult thing to come to terms with back in Ireland
Patrick

Franklin

Someone told me who lived out there for a while found it very hard to adjust; said something like, “the dry air and heat sucks the water out of you�. I have lived in Chicago for several dry winters and dealt with this issue by dotting humidifiers around my apartment and drank water more often. But maybe the dryness issue is more serious and might lead to greater infection risk (re: Oro Valley and surrounding area). I would be grateful for input on this issue.

There seems to be a lot of innuendo that Phoenix and Tucson and surrounding areas are bad for asthma. Is the problem (if in fact it is a problem) related to the area, increased traffic pollution etc? But where I live is hardly free of bad traffic and car pollution. Perhaps people with asthma have moved out there, i.e. asthma sufferers who moved out to Phoenix/Tucson and over time as they settled in the area had their own families; maybe their children are more likely to develop asthma. This is an important issue for me because I have a close relative that lives with me who is mildly asthmatic and I don’t want to risk their health by moving out there. I would be grateful for input on this issue.

inquisitive40

Well I lived in St Louis for a little over a year, in the summer it is very humid and you really don't want to spend any time outside in the summer. In the winter it is feezing cold. My main feeling I had was sore joints when I lived there. In general no one lives there without AC, here in SF East Bay California it is what they call a "dry heat" and there is often a nice breeze on a hot day which was always a HOT breeze in St Louis. The other main difference from St Louis to California are allergies, once the summer rolls in we hit allergy season and it can sometimes be miserable feeling like a common cold, runny nose, sore eyes etc.
Something I did notice when in St Louis was I did have several bad asthma attacks which attributed to dust in the house we lived BUT it could well have been the climate, since I moved here I have not had any asthma issues at all.
Patrick

yorkshirelass

I am looking at moving out to the Pacific Northwest early next year and can't wait to try living somewhere new in the U.S. Top of the list right now is a town just outside Portland called Hillsboro, but we are also looking into Kirkland which is near Seattle. Anybody living there have any advice on the area, I would love to hear it!

lairdside

I live in pine pollen land. First time in my life I've ever suffered with an allergy.

I have one word for you - CLARITIN

inquisitive40

Well all I know about the Pacific NorthWest is that it can be pretty much like UK weather, wet, cold BUT not really cold. Seattle is a very wet area. Even driving north from here up to Mendocino the weather is dramatically different,,,, much more like Irish weather for me.
Personally I love the climate here in the East Bay. Is vastly different to SF itself but has still a nice breeze, rolling countryside with mountains rising up around the horizon. Yosemite is about 2 and a half hour drive and Monteray is about an hour, what more could I ask for.
No really cold winters and pretty nice for 9 months of the year.
Patrick

edwords

Actually, since the 19th century, people with lung ailments such as asthma moved to Arizona for the healthful environment. So it's not surprising that many of their offspring might also have the disease.
My wife has mild asthma and it seemed to be worse when we lived near Philadelphia. I have allergies, and they too were worse back East (although I wish my neighbors would stop planting non-native trees and lawns).
I've lived here for five years. The heat is bad, but not as bad as the humid heat you find in tropical places. Air conditioning and outdoor misters make things a lot more bearable in the summer. And from October through May you couldn't ask for nicer weather.
The only other lung-related concern I can think of is Valley Fever, which is carried by spores in the ground. Most people here get it, but show little or no symptoms. It does hit a few quite badly, though.

Franklin

Thanks for the heads up on "Valley Fever".