I often joke that Lincolnshire is like the "English equivalent of Kansas". It's not really a fair comparison, but both are semi-remote, rural areas with conservative viewpoints. They also both have some of the cheapest property prices in their respective countries, but definitely not the cheapest. Both are reasonably flat. Both have reasonably low levels of pay compared to the rest of the country.

I decided to see if the property markets were similar. The task? To find the cheapest house near a largish city (I'm accepting Louth for this).

In Louth, Lincolnshire.. the cheapest house is a two bedroom mid-terraced house in Manby at £79,000 ($138,000). In Topeka, Kansas.. the cheapest house is a two bedroom house in Highland Park at, wait for it, $10,900 (£6,250)! It doesn't look that great though, so what about a little pricier? Even moving twenty pages into the listings the prices only reach $64,900. Realtor.com has 637 properties near Topeka, KS that are under the absolute cheapest house here in the Louth area.

Of course, I still think I'd rather live in Louth than Topeka, but it's a great demonstration of how a whole pile more land leads to increased quality of life whether it's in Kansas or not. Entry level homes are fourteen times cheaper between a cheap area of the US and a cheap area of the UK? Let's start those land reclamation projects now! ;-)

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