The last couple of weeks we, my wife and I, have been watching some really old TV shows from BBC. They used to be called "Home or Away", and normally they show three properties home in UK and then three away in Spain, France or Italy - or something.... And we are interested in moving to somewhat warmer climate, since Sweden where we live today is well cold... However last week it got interesting in a new way. Suddenly it was more about a home in USA. Although we love Maui (we been there way to many times, love the club floor on Four Seasons there - it is somehow our reference home away from home...) we never considered moving to USA when we retire some day (2 years from now we will be 55 and be able to do just that, stop spinning that "squirrel wheel" - as it is called here in Sweden, "Ekorrehjulet"). Well we have talked about Maui and Wailea area of course - but there are a few challenges like VISA... Never mind that though... So what I like to hear or understand from some people in the USA is if we have got this property value thing going wrong in out heads? Here is what I am thinking about: The houses, some with pool, in LA / Texas / Florid, seem to be rather great value. Mind you the TV shows we are watching are of course very old, from 2010 plus minus a year or two, so the values on the TV show is of course way of. BUT we got interested when we a property in Texas overseeing a lake. The size was great, much larger than anything here in Sweden - it is like 5 times larger volume - sooo much nicer! And the views. And the price was about 200.000 GBP (in 2009! value) - there is no way we could get that here in Sweden, and it was a new build - there is just not possible to challenge that here in Sweden. For 200.000 GBP you get a small apartment. A house is out of the question. The next episode was from Florida, and even thought the price was 300.000 GBP - it was the same feeling - what on earth have we missed? Yes, again, the value was 2010 in that episode I think, so it got to have changed. Then I read this article in a magazine here in Sweden about a Swedish broker (is it called that in the us when you sell houses?) in Florida, and the average house price was about 300.000 USD. That is crazy cheep in my mind for what I can get where I live. So are we wrong in looking into a vacation home in USA? Not sure where yet - to many options currently...? Yes I would love to move to USA - however as I wrote in the beginning, VISA is somewhat of a challenge. We might be able to get a VISA type B (I think it is called) which gives us the right to spend 6 months in USA within rolling 12 months I guess, but yea when I stop working that spinning wheel I might like to move permanent and I don't see how that is possible. Yet.
