VTMBH Article: Body
For many young Irish immigrants, America is a stop on the way to owning a home back in Ireland. Most young Irish people come to American to earn a lot of money very quickly so that they can get a head start on their peers and own their own home before they start having children.
Now that Ireland has her belly full of financial sweetness, a lot of young Irish people are speeding up the traditional return to Ireland to cash in on a buoyant economy.
Julie Simpson, 30, a Tipperary native, is heading back to Ireland in February. She and her husband John came to New York in 1998.
We are ready now to head back to the house in Ireland. We have saved enough that we think we can afford a huge part of the mortgage, so we should be able to get one handy enough. The plan was always come here, get the money, go home. Its time now, there is work at home, she says.
But unknown to Julie and many like her, Irelands buoyant economy might sink her ambitions.
The price of homes in the Irish Republic went up by 20 percent over the course of 2002, according to figures produced by one of Irelands leading [real] estate agencies, Sherry Fitzgerald. Sherry Fitzgerald reported that property prices countrywide went up last year by 3.4 percent in the final three months, and 20 percent over last year. In Dublin, the annual rise was slightly higher, at 20.5 percent.
Marian Finnegan, chief economist at the agency, says most of the people buying houses in Ireland are first-time buyers like the Simpsons. Demand among first-time buyers has been particularly strong, with them purchasing an estimated 32 percent of properties.
After December, there should be strong demand for property and above-trend rates of price inflation in the first six months of the year, Finnegan said.
Another shock for returning expats is high prices in other aspects of Irelands economy.
A recent survey published in Ireland found that tourists visiting Ireland love its misty green glens and valleys but have had it with soggy chips and over-priced main courses.
The survey of visitors to Ireland found 86 percent were highly satisfied with their holidays but large numbers from continental Europe were dismayed by meals served in many restaurants, sometimes at inflated prices.
As it is, Ireland is about as costly at New York, without the wage benefits. Some Irish natives refuse to believe the changes.
I havent been home in about five years but it couldnt have climbed that high, said Brian Dillon from Cork.
Actually, it has. Irish economists are predicting that inflation looks set to hit six percent in the months ahead, reinforcing Irelands reputation for the worst inflation record. Irish people still have to contend with another year of increases. There will be a tax hike from 12 to 13 percent, a hike in electricity charges, increasing road taxes, higher television license costs and increased surcharges on certain cars.
By years end, Ireland will still have an inflation rate well over three times the Euro zone average of 1.2 percent.
And education costs also rose by almost 10 percent compared to the EU average of 3.9 percent. Eating out is the also more expensive for Irish people with restaurants and hotel prices having risen 7.8 percent.
Still, a lot of Irish people and Americans with Irish ancestry seek a little Irish cottage looking out over green fields and stony field walls. But quite a few hurdles are presented when someone tries to build a house in Ireland.
There are already strict planning laws in Ireland, where permission to build is given only to people from the area and returning Irish emigrants with a certain amount of years living in the area. Even then, there are a host of rules that can impede anyone wishing to build their own home near their hometown. Irish law requires that you need planning permission for virtually every significant development. Permission will generally not be granted if your plans contravene local development plans. So, even if there is a nice plot of land a relation has had their eye on for a returning emigrant, there is nothing to say that land can ever be theirs.
To make matters worse, the dollar is weak as threatened war impacts the stock market. Irish people saving American dollars to gain in the Irish market when they return home will get a nasty shock.
John Gillen, 35, originally from Dublin, works in Bank of America and said the threat of war was bringing down all markets.
Its the hawkish rhetoric from British and U.S. government officials over the weekend that has pushed the Euro to a fresh, three-year high, that puts our money at a very low value right now in terms of sending it back to Ireland for that house at home, he said. Still, moving companies that specialize in carting containers of Irish household goods to Ireland are reporting high volumes of new customers moving to Ireland. In the Bronx alone, there are hundreds of signs advertising entire contents of apartment for sale, moving home.
For some, though, now is the best time to return to Ireland, despite the nightmares.
Im still going in a month, Julie Simpson said. We always planned it that way, everything will sort itself out once we get there.
Now that Ireland has her belly full of financial sweetness, a lot of young Irish people are speeding up the traditional return to Ireland to cash in on a buoyant economy.
Julie Simpson, 30, a Tipperary native, is heading back to Ireland in February. She and her husband John came to New York in 1998.
We are ready now to head back to the house in Ireland. We have saved enough that we think we can afford a huge part of the mortgage, so we should be able to get one handy enough. The plan was always come here, get the money, go home. Its time now, there is work at home, she says.
But unknown to Julie and many like her, Irelands buoyant economy might sink her ambitions.
The price of homes in the Irish Republic went up by 20 percent over the course of 2002, according to figures produced by one of Irelands leading [real] estate agencies, Sherry Fitzgerald. Sherry Fitzgerald reported that property prices countrywide went up last year by 3.4 percent in the final three months, and 20 percent over last year. In Dublin, the annual rise was slightly higher, at 20.5 percent.
Marian Finnegan, chief economist at the agency, says most of the people buying houses in Ireland are first-time buyers like the Simpsons. Demand among first-time buyers has been particularly strong, with them purchasing an estimated 32 percent of properties.
After December, there should be strong demand for property and above-trend rates of price inflation in the first six months of the year, Finnegan said.
Another shock for returning expats is high prices in other aspects of Irelands economy.
A recent survey published in Ireland found that tourists visiting Ireland love its misty green glens and valleys but have had it with soggy chips and over-priced main courses.
The survey of visitors to Ireland found 86 percent were highly satisfied with their holidays but large numbers from continental Europe were dismayed by meals served in many restaurants, sometimes at inflated prices.
As it is, Ireland is about as costly at New York, without the wage benefits. Some Irish natives refuse to believe the changes.
I havent been home in about five years but it couldnt have climbed that high, said Brian Dillon from Cork.
Actually, it has. Irish economists are predicting that inflation looks set to hit six percent in the months ahead, reinforcing Irelands reputation for the worst inflation record. Irish people still have to contend with another year of increases. There will be a tax hike from 12 to 13 percent, a hike in electricity charges, increasing road taxes, higher television license costs and increased surcharges on certain cars.
By years end, Ireland will still have an inflation rate well over three times the Euro zone average of 1.2 percent.
And education costs also rose by almost 10 percent compared to the EU average of 3.9 percent. Eating out is the also more expensive for Irish people with restaurants and hotel prices having risen 7.8 percent.
Still, a lot of Irish people and Americans with Irish ancestry seek a little Irish cottage looking out over green fields and stony field walls. But quite a few hurdles are presented when someone tries to build a house in Ireland.
There are already strict planning laws in Ireland, where permission to build is given only to people from the area and returning Irish emigrants with a certain amount of years living in the area. Even then, there are a host of rules that can impede anyone wishing to build their own home near their hometown. Irish law requires that you need planning permission for virtually every significant development. Permission will generally not be granted if your plans contravene local development plans. So, even if there is a nice plot of land a relation has had their eye on for a returning emigrant, there is nothing to say that land can ever be theirs.
To make matters worse, the dollar is weak as threatened war impacts the stock market. Irish people saving American dollars to gain in the Irish market when they return home will get a nasty shock.
John Gillen, 35, originally from Dublin, works in Bank of America and said the threat of war was bringing down all markets.
Its the hawkish rhetoric from British and U.S. government officials over the weekend that has pushed the Euro to a fresh, three-year high, that puts our money at a very low value right now in terms of sending it back to Ireland for that house at home, he said. Still, moving companies that specialize in carting containers of Irish household goods to Ireland are reporting high volumes of new customers moving to Ireland. In the Bronx alone, there are hundreds of signs advertising entire contents of apartment for sale, moving home.
For some, though, now is the best time to return to Ireland, despite the nightmares.
Im still going in a month, Julie Simpson said. We always planned it that way, everything will sort itself out once we get there.