AEE 2624: How to Talk About Housing Costs Without Sounding Rude

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All Ears English Podcast 19 min 2 speakers 3 chapters transcribed 3 months ago

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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Michelle Kaplan 0:00

This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2624. How to talk about housing costs without sounding rude.

Lindsay McMahon 0:10

Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English?

How can you talk about housing costs without being rude?

Lindsay McMahon 0:19

We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. With your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl. coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe. Should you ask someone how much their home costs? Today, find out the answer and how you can ask this question in a more indirect way to avoid being rude in English. Hey, Lindsay, how are you? Hey, Michelle, I am excited. How are you doing?

Michelle Kaplan 1:13

I'm good. Lindsay, have you ever been really surprised by how much someone has paid for their home? Maybe a celebrity or someone you know?

Lindsay McMahon 1:23

Well, it's not people I know because I don't usually know exactly how much people paid for their home. But when I look at houses that have sold, I'm very surprised by the prices, at least in Denver. And I think, are these houses really worth that price? I'm not so sure.

Michelle Kaplan 1:40

Yeah, it's interesting how sometimes you'll see, oh, what could you get in another part of the country? And it's like, shh. A brand new house and then in a, it's just, it's location, location, location, right? So if it's in, you know, a really hot spot of the country, it's just going to cost more and you're probably getting an older house. Some people are okay with that.

Lindsay McMahon 2:06

So there's trade-offs. Huge trade-offs. And then you have to think about the city you're in. Is it an up and coming city or is it past its prime? Because sometimes I worry about Denver. Denver was really hot in between like 2010 and 2024, I think. Like a lot of people moved here during the pandemic because they could work remotely. But now I don't know what the future of Denver is. I don't know if it's going to be in as much demand, but the prices haven't come down. You know, it's not like they're coming down. So it's tricky when you make a purchase.

Michelle Kaplan 2:39

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, their housing prices are different all around the world. And like we said, even in the US, so like a two bedroom in New York is going to be much more expensive.

2:50

Yes.

Michelle Kaplan 2:50

than one in the suburbs. A two bedroom in New York is going to be probably more expensive than a new construction in, you know, North Carolina. I don't know.

Lindsay McMahon 3:01

North Carolina is an awesome place. Yeah. No, no, no. I was saying like even a, even a major city like Atlanta is going to be a lot cheaper than, you know, you could probably get a house in Atlanta for what you pay for a two bedroom apartment in New York. It's crazy.

Michelle Kaplan 3:15

Yeah.

Lindsay McMahon 3:16

I'm excited to get into this topic today.

Michelle Kaplan 3:18

Yeah. Yeah, well, so we had a listener who was curious about this topic, and asked us a question. So this was from YouTube. And it's from Richard Ramirez 5746. So Lindsay, what was his question?

Lindsay McMahon 3:34

He said, hey, you should talk about housing costs in the U.S. All right. And I'm excited because guess what? These are the conversations we're having with our families, with our friends, our partners all the time. I'm constantly having this conversation with my partner because we want to buy a new home, but we're just not sure if the pricing makes sense right now, you know, like I said before. Yeah.

Michelle Kaplan 3:56

It's really hard. It's really hard to know. And, you know, you have some people who then they get in. I mean, I have friends who, when the interest rates were super low, they bought and they're like, we're never moving. Exactly. Do you know those people? Are you one of those?

Lindsay McMahon 4:11

Yeah.

Michelle Kaplan 4:11

I'm one of those people. Yeah. Yeah. So you're like, I mean, I have friends that's like so, I mean, mine isn't low, but it's okay. But, you know, for my friends, they're like, we cannot move.

Lindsay McMahon 4:25

Like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. And isn't it really interesting that it's okay to talk about interest rate, your interest rate, but it's not okay to talk about the price of your house because that also factors into the price of your house in a major way.