New Years in Sydney was "sun"sational! We spent the afternoon on Manly beach which is only about a 20 minute drive from our house. Will post a photo soon. We loved it. Even the locals are raving about how "brilliant" the weather is. It's typically hotter and more humid this time of year. It's been a perfect 80 degrees since we arrived. Love having all the windows open - think we can get used to this.
We also bought a car. It's a 2008 Holden Commodore (an Australian subsidiary of GM). We actually found car prices to be pretty similar to US.
The exchange rate is pretty much 1 to 1 right now give or take a couple pennies. The currency is AU dollars. Sydney has an extremely high cost of living. It would be comparable to living in NYC, San Francisco or London. So our sticker shock is not due to the exchange rate -- its due from moving from a place with such a low cost of living. I mentioned our rent already. The other really expensive thing for us will be daycare. Daycare for the boys is about 3 times higher than what we're used to, and public school for Charley is $4500 per year for non-citizens. We will eventually adjust!
Many people have asked about our house in Lincoln. It is still for sale. We're confident it will sell in the spring and thank goodness for my sister Sandi and our wonderful neighbors, the Euckers, for helping us out in the meantime. They are so generous, they'll probably buy it if no one else does : )
Cheers to a happy and healthy 2012!
Happy new year!!!! Jan Wade
ReplyDeleteHappy New year! It's great to hear about your experience in Australia!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year. Didn't notice any parties at your house and we made sure all those teenage boys we had here didn't make their way over to the neighbors. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's funny because, to us, the price of the apartment isn't that much. We pay about half that for about half the space. In D.C. we would buy before our 'mortgage' went that high though. My friends in New Zealand say the cost is comparable to D.C.
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