Coming from Germany, I was shocked at the property prices in the UK. Living here for a short while, it seems to me that cost of living at a certain standard is higher than or at least similar to many parts of the US, while salaries are closer to European levels, maybe 1.2x-1.5x in London. Commuting from a smaller city close by, e.g. Reading<-> London comes out to >£5k/year for public transport, and getting there by car takes ages because the city is not designed to handle large amounts of traffic(IMO)