Anyone moved to Europe?

Are you gonna take american jobs with you?

We moved fr LA to U.K.

London and Zurich are on the most expensive side of things in Europe. Housing as well as the rest of thing there will be much more expensive than in the rest of Europe. You should compare housing prices yourself! For example for Scandinavia checkout finn.no (Norway), blocket.se (Sweden), idealista.com (Spain, Italy, Portugal), leboncoin.fr (France). People live compactly here so housing is mostly apartments but then if you want to live in a house that is possible but commute will take time. Most of the counties here come with (almost) free healcare - there will be queues and you will have to wait for a while for a specialist, but they will keep you alive. When employers provide you with insurance it will be for private hospitals with no queues and good quality. Universities are much more affordable, from free to incomparably much cheaper than in US. Cars are more expensive but then you get very good public transport.

About to move the other way, from Switzerland to Bay Area. From my experience of having lived in Sweden, Germany, UK and Switzerland, I would recommend to really do your research and look at the balance between CoL, TC and taxes. All European countries have a different mix. For example I found that Germany for example had a pretty bad split as TC was too low and taxes and cost of healthcare was too high. Out of all of the places I have worked and lived I thought Switzerland was by far the best balance as TCs are high and taxes fairly low. Also the high TC and stable FX makes traveling in Europe way easier. You might be able to afford a house in Eastern Europe, but you are practically stuck there as traveling will break the bank. However buying a house in Switzerland/EU might be tricky if you are a US citizen.

I know people who moved from US to EU, and kept job, but had to take pay cut to adjust for market differences. Hopefully this doesn't happen to you

I'm in Amsterdam. Salaries are definitely lower here, but expats get something called the 30 percent ruling which helps a ton with taxes. There's lots of incentives in place so buying here is much cheaper than renting - if you plan on sticking around for a few years. And public transport actually works here, so you can consider living in Haarlem or Utrecht to get more space. https://us.teamblind.com/s/ooVnNED4

I’ve worked in Germany for 4 years before I moved state side. Even though rent as an absolute number is lower, the % of salary that I paid as rent in Berlin was 30% for a house half the size I live currently in (Chicago burbs). And now, my rent to salary ratio is roughly 25%. If you looking to buy a house, there is no doubt that US is a better place to be. Education can be a good point as Germany has free education for all. Public college and universities are very good. They are slowly catching up on English though.

Look at taxes for sure. Many european countries have insane taxes. For instance in Sweden you can have effective tax rates at 60-70% when you combine income tax with VAT. This might drastically change the spending power for buying real estate compared to the US. You do get benefits for all this tax,but you need to assess if you will actually benefit. IE- fully free healthcare, college, maternity benefits, much longer ‘holiday’ policies. If you are through college and arent planning on having kids, you will probably not benefit. Have you considered just moving to a lower cost area in the US? Austin, Denver have great tech scenes and you will be able to buy a house and lots of land.

Move to Austin/Philly/Colorado. Don’t judge just based on shitty Bay Area