PR Dilemma - Help needed

[malcontent]

US is big, so I'd say it really depends. My last visits to US I'm always surprised how expensive it is, still maybe a bit cheaper than Australia. Eating out is about 1usd to 1sgd if not more when you add the mandatory tips. My destination are Seattle, Dallas, LA (places where could find well paid jobs if needed to move).

Also American colleague who moved back after 10 years here, pays more to rent in Dallas then used to pay for a 4BR condo in orchard area. Buying with property taxes would be even more expensive. Of course that comes with the good and bad school districts issue in US. So for more remote retirement destination I'm sure things would be different but that's a bit like moving to Malaysia in local context.

Your colleague who moved to Dallas is either getting badly ripped off, or was getting a sweet deal on a 4br condo near Orchard. The average rent in the Dallas area is only $1,250-1,450/mo, what can you rent for that here?

Also, there are no mandatory tips in the U.S., customary, yes - but it is still at your discretion. How is that so different than adding a 10% service charge to the bill? Although 15% on the pre-tax amount is sort of the baseline expectation in the U.S., my parents (in their 80’s) still tip 10% which used to be the norm. Here I have to tell them to remove the 10% service charge when I’m not happy with the service. Fortunately I’ve only had to do that a few times.

[ProvenPracticalFlexible]

I think you might missed the good school district part, wasn't refering to average in Dallas. Look rentals in Highland Park in Dallas and it changes the picture quite a lot, under 4000usd is difficult or impossible to find a family house or apartment. Drove through the area and when we looked the house prices and property taxes Singapore started to feel cheap as hell.

[malcontent]

I didn’t see Highland Park on the list of best schools in the Dallas area, but I’ll assume it is... a quick check shows 3br apartments there range from $1.5-$6.5k per month. I presume you would compare these high end apartments in Highland Park with something like the Claymore area in Singapore... which are minimum 5 figure monthly rentals? My company typically shells out S$16k/mo for US expats staying there, that’s at least double the rent you’d pay in Highland Park, TX. If you want to compare outside the best of the best for each city, I think you’ll find “at least half” is a consistently reliable expectation.

[ProvenPracticalFlexible]

Sorry a typo or mixed up with whisky, meant university park. Edit: correcting myself that yes the school district name is Highland Park though university park seems to belong to same school district. Yes if you just type top school districts in Dallas or Texas hat seems to be there quite easily. I'm definitely no expert on these so just relied my friends word without checking.

Of course people who have they cost covered are a different class all together. I'm still talking about middle class expats who pay they own housing both ends.

Anyway a bit irrelevant, not here to argue on individual apartments and what we could potentially find, main point was that US reputation as cheap is not that accurate any more or at least depends a lot where you decide to stay. The link for living costs SMS shares regurarly would support that too.

[malcontent]

Things have definitely gotten more expensive in the US. When I left in 1996 my 1br apartment in Grand Rapids was $300/mo... today it would be 2-3x that. The 650sqft house I bought in Kalamazoo in 2007 for $38,000 is now worth almost $80,000!