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Hi dear FDM'ers. I've started posting on this forum fairly recently although I've been following FDR for about 2 years now. In a 'welcome' thread I've mentioned that I'm originally from Poland (or Pooland as I call it) and that 5 years ago I decided to migrate to less hellish place - the UK. I'm currently living in South East London, which is quite dodgy but not very expensive compared to other parts of London. I've been renting properties so far but really want to buy my own place as I've recently enterred my 30's. I'm a software developer in a big financial corporation, hence my wage is quite high and I have good career prospects here if I stay in this industry sector. Despite this, my options of getting on the property ladder are quite grim as the prices of property are simply astronomical. For those not living in the UK, to give you an idea, newly built one-bedroom (shoebox sized) flats in my area start at about £320k to £350k. Even with my high wage, I can't get a mortgage as I'm not making enough money. Old builds are cheaper but usually in very rough areas (like Dagenham) and are usually either very neglected, ex-council (social housing) or both. My place of work is right smack in central London, hence If I go further out the property prices reduce but only slightly and even If I did get a mortgage for one of those I would be facing at the very least, 20 years of paying it off while spending 3 hours a day commuting to and from work. This is not a life I want to lead. If I go out into smaller towns in the UK, there is very little demand for my skills if any. My company recently established a big presence in Tennesse in the US and I was thinking of persuing being relocated there for some time, just to see what the opportunities are in the US. One of my team members is based there and he likes it, but also mentioned that the best place to be for a person with our skillset would be Texas, as according to him, it has the best ratio of personal liberties to economic opportunities. Problem with both of those states is that the people there, tend to be more on the religious side. I'm not religious and don't really get along with religious people, hence I've mentioned this to be a problem. I've also contemplated moving back to Pooland, mainly the Kraków region, which has an influx of foreign tech companies setting up their branches and hiring IT professionals. The cost of living in Pooland are a lot, and I mean a lot, lower than in the UK, and with my current savings, I already have pretty much half a property there (or at least well more than needed for a deposit on a mortgage). Pooland has its problems though - it's filled with either neurotic catholics or raving socialists and have terrible bureaucracy - even some left over from the Stalinist era. I know this post is long, so I'll try to end it quickly. Basically, I'm at crossroads so to speak. If I stay in London, I have a perspective of renting for the rest of my life or purchasing a tiny, low quality housing and trying to pay it off for the next 2 decades, all the while dealing with various problems which the UK has, like 3rd word immigrants, crazy socialists and feminazis, race riots and so on. If I leave, I would have to probably face some combination of similar problems, maybe to lesser extent but I'd have to 'start my life from scratch' in terms of social circles for example. To make this more difficult, I'm not very outgoing and change is a very big thing to me. Is there any advice you can bestow on me in this field?