What does it cost to live fairly well in Udon Thani? Can one exist well with a home on $35k US??

I think you should be able to live very well on $35K US a month.

with $35k a month you will have many good friends around you.
you would be able to have a beautiful large house with pool built to your own spec,and have a great standard of living.
you can survive on much less than that when the partys over and you run low on cash.

to stop further piss taking, i assume you are talking about $35k per year, and still yes you can have a great life on that too, infact i estimate you will be in the top 20% of falangs in udon.

With a home and car already paid for you can live very comfortably on the 800,000bht per annum needed to qualify for a retirement visa.If you have a TW/TG then that may alter the equation, depends on her. I think immigration realise this because they only expect married visa applicants to have 400,000bht. Still manageable I would think, providing your not committed to monthly house and car payments.

We do very well on 800K a year including making house and car payments.

I live on less than 400,000 baht per year and I have a great standard of living. I live in a fully furnished 3 bedroomed house, have air-con on 24/7, employ a house maid, run a truck and motorbike, go out on the town every other day and eat out at restaurants every day. 400,000 back in the UK would just about cover my rent.

Check out this page http://www.udonmap.com/udonthani_living_costs it's a little dated and not 100% complete but will give you a little idea on the cost of living.

$35k US??

also guessing that's a typo, if $3500 usd a month, no problem at all, if 35000 baht a month, you paying for all your basics and living cheap, very possible, but few extras.

if not typo, what, are you nuts. i would live in ft lauderdale or somewhere else in western world of convenience and less frustrations of little things.

That is so true La. Some just want to have a bit of frustration in thier life or possibly can not get over the Thai smile.

I lived in Udon for 15 months and reckon you can have a really good lifestyle on 40000 baht or approx ฃ600 a month.

Seems to me that everytime I go to Tesco, it costs more. Use to be would spend 800 baht, then 1200, and now seems to run around 1700. For about the same items.

Couple this with the value of the baht, its starting to get very expensive to live here. And other items that contain steel or concrete, well you know what I am getting at, just look at that other topic on the BBQ, which is around 400 US dollars.

I'm afraid your right, but when the cost of fuel went sky high it had to happen.

My home was actually built three years ago and I got it at pre fuel increase costs. That alone has cost the new models go up 400K.

I looked at some lots outside of First Homes when you figured out the cost per meter, it 2.7 Mil per rai, raw land. Unless my math is wrong that almost $73,000 for what a third of acre?. Thats just insane. But people are buying it.

There is a nice lot in First homes price 1.4 mil, not even close to a rai but respectful size for gardening ect. I just don't see the value, but I could be very wrong.

You guys that got good prices for land and built on them you jut to wait for the City to catch up to your area and you probably sitting on gold mines.

It appears the housing AMrket in the states id down again, a very normal cycle, wonder if that will apply here as well?

Makes me glad I got the "farm" and built the "jungle house" outside the ring road when we did. I talked to my father in-law and he said that the lot we bought has almost doubled sence we got ours.

noticed it a bit at lotus, but happy with the gas pump numbers. although back to under 20 baht a liter would be nicer. car took 1200 baht one time, when i bought, 3 yrs ago and 13 baht a liter, had hard time putting 600 in. now back down to 800 for fairly full tank, which is just enough for my free botlte of water.

ok, higher prices for us farangs, but just think if you were a local. thailand would look like one of the most expensive places in the world to live. relate that 100-200 baht a day salary to 100-200 dollars or pounds a day and you realize how expensive it is for our counterparts. bus across town, 7 dollars, 2 liter of milk, 55 dollars, chang beer on sale 32 dollars, plate of rice and topping 20 - 30 dollars, yikes, this country is expensive. little extra smile from one of the lovely lasses, 300 - 1000 dollars, ouch.

That's an interesting way at looking at things LA. You're quite correct, Thailand is very expensive to the locals living here. It must be a real struggle to live on under 200 baht per day. Three small beers at one of the local pubs would cost a days wages, makes you think doesn't it! No wonder why the 69 baht korean BBQ's are so popular.