HGTV's house hunters internation
 

Every day this week is house huntiers in Paris Italy ,London etc....tonight was Florence!! Eurolovers and dreamers set you timers!

The apartment in Florence the couple bought was very nice. Even nicer is that they paid cash and the price was around $800,000.

I think she said that it was equivalent to $400,000. US. But anyway, the fact that most Italians save up to buy their place with cash is impressive.

Hubby and I were greatly looking forward to the Paris one this week as we are interested in someday buying something in France. But they don't really tell you how to go about it, just give you an idea of what's out there. PS - I picked the small apartment with the great views in Florence!

I thought they said the average price in Florence was $400,000, but the one they bought was almost double that because of the views, etc. Not that it matters....
As an aside, when I was looking at getting married in Tuscany 2 years ago, I contacted the wedding planning company of the woman on the show. Her prices were a LOT more than any other wedding planning company I contacted. But I guess her company is doing pretty well though!

The saving for this place had them living for 6 yrs with the mother/mil - She, the wife, was very patient - I would have gotten a mortgage !

The show is interesting, at least they mention price, they don't on the domestic show - I wish they would.

crusinred is right. The show was very cool though. Of particular fun was seeing how different the furniture people have in their living rooms is.

My favorite saying from this episode: Grandissimo! Fantastico!

I had to laugh at the wife's insistence on having a washer AND dryer! I'm with her on that one especially after it took 2 days for jeans to dry when we were there in a particularly humid spell! that was the apartment I would have picked as well-as a side note, another of our favorite shows is Vacation Home Search on Travel Channel which has an identical format.

Oooh, thanks for posting this! I like to watch the US version occasionally, but international episodes will be hard to resist. If you missed the Florence program (as I did), HGTV almost always repeats its programs. Go to their website at hgtv.com and check the schedule.

tonight is Vancouver (sp?)

Here's what I found out on the HGTV site: I think those of us who want to see the Florence episode are SOL. Site says it was repeated at 2:00 am on 12 April; no further repeats listed. Tonight at 10:00 pm is Montreal, tomorrow night is London, the next night is Spain and the final night is Paris. I wanted to see Florence most of all, she whined.

>saving for this place had them living for 6 yrs with the mother/mil...<

I don't think that I could save up $133K per year, even living with my mother.

((I))

Maybe Mamma was ready to get some space back & helped them a bit!

Obviously her wedding planning business must be doing very well!
But I second the nix on the MIL. Also, the twin beds!

not only twin beds, but twin beds that looked like they were built into the wall across the room from each other!!!

In many European countries, especially Eastern Europe it is very hard to get a mortgage and they usually require very high downpayments. It is also usual for parents to pay a large amount for a new home to help out their kids.

My husband and two of our friends got together to watch the Florence episode last night and thought it was great. The husband was a hoot!

Those apartments were GIGANTIC!!! Well, maybe we just felt that way since we have a itsy-bitsy studio in Paris for which we have a mortgage of course - that cash thing was just crazy! Would love to have that kind of cash laying around...and to be able to buy such a sweet apartment!!

Looking forward to seeing the Paris episode on Friday, of course, and seeing our friends Darrell and Stephanie of Paris Real Estate Finders do their thing in Paris on Friday. It was kind of funny when Darrell mentioned they were going to be on the show, he didn't expect us to even have heard of it. We were practically screaming "You're going to be on House Hunters?? Are you kidding? We love House Hunters! That's fantastic!" He'd never seen or heard of the show and I guess the two of them have been living in Paris long enough to have missed a lot of the HGTV/DIY/Trading Spaces craze, so he was talking about it like it was just some little cable show.

Lutece, he'll see just how "little" that cable show is when they get swamped with calls and emails after the show. Can you repost the link to their website you had sent me before?

I see you responded to my other post. Got it! thanks.