I've just finished a visit to my daughter, in Australia, and offer some reflections about our two islands and lifestyles.  I live in St Croix, in the US Virgin islands. My little island is 27 miles long and 8 miles wide. It is home to lovely white sand beaches, a sub-tropical rainforest, verdant hills and valleys, and colorful flora and fauna.

My daughter lives on the Gold Coast in Australia. Her island is a bit bigger than mine!  In fact, everything there is bigger! The beaches are extremely wide. The ocean is very cold and the waves are huge! The trees - even the same ones that we have in St Croix - are taller. The rainforest is much older, and the vistas from the Australian rainforest (the Hinterlands) are just huge and gorgeous. The bugs and critters are bigger there, too, and more deadly! I had the chills at the Brisbane museum looking at the creatures that live among the Aussies! About all we have to worry about in St Croix are centipedes - and they look pretty tame compared to the Australian centipedes!

Housing

My daugther lives in one of those neighborhoods with rows and rows of houses that all look pretty much the same. I can't leave the house for fear I will never find it again!  And these row houses are not inexpensive, either. The average cost of a home there is mid 300's to mid 400's (and right now the dollar is about .8 of the Australian dollar).  That's just a basic home - nothing fancy. In fact, the architecture and design features here are very plain, and the lots very small. There are subdivisions springing up all over the place - which are, in my opinion, very unattractive and unappealing.

On my little island, St. Croix, there are not very many subdivisions, and there are no new ones! The house prices are fairly comparable, but for the same price in St Croix, you're going to get an old place that needs quite a bit of work. One big difference is that in St Croix you are never more than 30 minutes away from anything.  But in Australia, the suburbs are miles away from shopping, beaches, and other amenities.  Gas prices are about 4 times as high as in St Croix.

Costs

They are taking lots of steps to "go green" in Australia.  Hotels and homes are constructed with energy efficiency in mind.  Already their power bills are much lower than ours in St. Croix.
 
Food and drinks are much more expensive there. A beer (and by the way, the beer in Australia is just outstanding) will cost you about $7 a pint. In St Croix, happy hour prices are anywhere from $1 - $3 for a beer (but nowhere near as good).  A mixed drink or glass of wine there will set you back about $10 - in St. Croix, about half of that.  Meals, with the difference in the dollar, are about the same, although we did go to a steak place and the hamburgers were $25. Ouch. Grocery store prices are probably comparable as well.

Weather

The weather in St Croix is always warm. September is typically the hottest with the least amount of breeze (unless there's a hurricane), and winters are just perfect. On the Gold Coast, the seasons are, of course, opposite from ours. It's pretty hot there in "our" winter - but fairly chilly in their winter (our summer).  I visited in October and the weather was interesting.  Some days were very hot, and other days quite chilly.

Lifestyle

My conclusion is that life is harder on the Gold Coast of Australia. It's expensive; there is a lot of driving; jobs are hard to come by and you typically have to travel long distances to get to them; and there are lots of critters on land and sea to be wary of.

The pace, lifestyle, and ease of my little island of St Croix suits me much better. Although Australia does have something that St Croix does not have - and that's my beautiful daughter and her wonderful man, Andy. For that reason, I will certainly be leaving a little piece of my heart "down under" - and am already thinking of my next trip to visit the Gold Coast.

Meanwhile, contact me with all your questions and concerns about living and buying real estate in St. Croix.  Be sure and sign up to receive your free Relocation Package and learn about our island.

Kim Lucas, REALTOR
www.retireinstcroix.com
www.kimlucasvi.com
340-626-3758
kim@coldwellbankervi.com