House Hunters Int’l: How Much?
by admin on Nov.22, 2013, under Real Estate
If you think your US rent or mortgage payment is high, spend a bit of time on House Hunters International on HGTV and you may find yourself scratching your head AND counting your blessings.
I haven’t had too much time lately to watch episodes but last night I did manage to catch two I’d recently recorded.
In the first, a couple was moving from Arizona to Mougins area – Provence, France. I didn’t expect this area to be cheap. A quick look at the local real estate listings does confirm, AND it’s part of what is known as the French Riviera, so…
What was their budget? $1.4 million US dollars.
Seems a decent budget to me!!
I was glad they had a LOT of money which should make their options more interesting but I still figured they’d get some (fairly) palatial property. NO! Granted, two of the properties had nice gardens and one actually had “acreage” but the houses were nothing spectacular and one was even a “fixer” with no working bathroom. I nearly fell off my sofa!!
In the second episode, a couple with a newborn was moving from Brisbane, Australia to Papua, New Guinea. You can read what the US State Department has to say about travel and safety issues in “PNG.”
This couple’s monthly rental budget was $7,500. I’m guessing this must be some work subsidy required to get anyone to move from beautiful Brisbane to totally “different” PNG. Even that would not have made ME leave Brisbane!
They ended up with an apartment – granted a large apartment with three bedrooms – but the final selection was made based on it being in a gated, secure compound with 24/7 security.
Wow. $1.4 million purchase with no working bathroom or $7500 rent to live in a closed compound. For at least this one month, I will be somewhat thankful to write what now appears to be my puny little check for my housing accommodation – with bathroom.
