Daily Iowan

July 24th, 2007

Not-so-easy money

I can’t believe it’s coming to an end. In two weeks, I’ll be back in Iowa, peeling myself off the furniture in my not air-conditioned apartment, complaining about the lack of beaches, Euro-trash clothing, and techno music.

I met with my “intercambio” conversation partner Ester for the last time today. It was really hard to say goodbye to her. Her English improved a lot in a few weeks, and my knowledge of Spanish swear words grew exponentially. What a great exchange.

What would it take to live here forever, exactly? I mean, besides a desire to live in paradise and eat paella for the rest of my life. Nearly every Spaniard I’ve met has told me the same thing, and they’re not kidding when they say San Sebastián is the most beautiful place in Spain.

I did a little research and asking around, and it turns out I’m living in one of the most expensive cities in Europe. I will naturally use that as an excuse for why my bank account has, well, depleted over the last three months. The residents of San Sebastián pay dearly for their gorgeous locale.

I asked Ester to explain the housing market to me, just to find out what living here would cost. Because San Sebastián is wedged between a set of mountains and an ocean, there’s not much room for development and growth. It’s pretty much only possible to build upwards and make the existing buildings taller.

It has been months since I’ve seen a normal house. One of my friends sent me an e-mail last week and mentioned he had to go mow the lawn. I’d forgotten lawns even existed, let alone that people had to mow them. There aren’t any houses or yards in San Sebastián. Everyone lives in apartments in the city.

Young people live with their parents until their late twenties or early thirties. They don’t pay rent, and they usually don’t work until after they graduate from college. One of my professors told me that most young people won’t have their first job until they graduate from college.

The apartments here aren’t exactly what you’d call big. They’re probably comparable to the average Iowa City apartment. I’m not sure who would kill who first, the parents or their kids. We’ve all seen Jack Black in Orange County. We know this kind of thing never ends well.

And this is all totally normal. If you have your own apartment before you’re 30, you are a complete phenomenon.

“Some people do. They must have rich parents or…” Ester trailed off, shaking her head. “I don’t know why anyone that age would have one.”

To rent a small apartment here costs €1,000, or about $1,333 per month. Almost everyone starts a career at €1000 ($1,333) a month. Food, clothing, furniture, taxes, entertainment, transportation, car payments — that’s all separate. If you’re married, you could scrape by with two incomes. A lot of couples choose to live with one another to save costs.

So let’s say you live with your parents until you’re 32, you get married, and you want to buy an apartment. You earn starting wages — the equivalent of $16,000 a year. Every square meter costs €6,000 ($8000). A normal apartment totals around €300,000, or $400,000.

That is one pricey little apartment. We’re talking about saving every penny you make for 25 years. And there’s no free parking.

Alas, my pint-sized dream of living here forever has been squashed. I will just have to save my money for some other preposterous fantasy.

Agur,

Ann

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 5:52 pm and is filed under Arts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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