Dear Yorkie

Congratulations on your move to Melbourne. I have lived in Aust. for 42 yrs and it is a wonderful country. My husband is from Melbourne. The climate is fairly cold in winter and can be very hot and dry in summer; but generally very pleasant.

House prices are cheaper than in Sydney so for a nice family home you would probably have to pay $450,000 AUD approx. depending on suburb.

Melbourne recently won 'most livable city' so has a lot of appeal. Not sure about work prospects but Melbourne and Sydney are the two 'powe' cities in Australia.

Good luck with it all, I'm sure you'll have a very enriching and happy time there. Great restaurants, beaches, good health care system, quite multi-cultural. Have fun.

Vicki (now living in Seoul)

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Melbourne is a beautiful city! My wife and I moved here from the US about 2 years ago and we absolutely love it. However, in my opinion the housing market is really overpriced right now. Actually it isn't just my opinion either, most analysts agree that it is at it's peek and will be starting a down turn in the near future. Having said that, it is all relative to how close you live to the city. Houses in the inner suburbs are the most expensive and will cost upwards of $600,000AUD for a single family home in a nice area and the prices only go up from there. For example a small three-bedroom townhouse down the street from us sold for $800,000AUD and it didn't even have a yard only a small patio in the back. If you move away from the city you can find affordable housing, but if you are working in the city you will have to drive (and pay for parking) unless you are lucky enough to live near a train station.

The job market for IT professionals is slow right now as it is around the world. Although SAP skill still seems to be in demand so you may not have a problem. Check out www.seek.com.au for a pretty good listing of what is available. I'm in IT myself so I can't really comment on your other skills. I believe that trades people get paid pretty well in Australia. They still have some pretty strong unions here, which make sure that their members are well compensated. Hope that helps and good luck.

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Vicki
Thankyou very much for taking the time and trouble to reply. Your information is very interesting and makes us even more determined to go.

Paul ( Yorkie )

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