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.

Maybe the couple in Florence relies on their vespa as main transportation. this could save quite a lot of money. Many Europeans do not own a car--especially in the larger cities.We have friends who live in Paris who do not own a car--they rent one when necessary or borrow one from their relatives. They walk everywhere or take the bus.

they mentioned that they love to ride their "scooter" as he put it, mainly because the traffic was so bad.

Thanks for the reminder, I saw the commercials over the weekend and then completely forgot about it. Eventually HGTV will repeat the episode, may not be until the summer, so I may get to see Florence. I'm programming the VCR as a memory back up.

The view was to die for but why do they put such ugly bathrooms in?(cheapo 80's)Over here all the baths are Tuscan tumbled tile...so wierd....Ill bet mama is missing her mamas boy.I forgot whats that saying in Italian?

I am SO annoyed that I missed Florence last night!
Tonight we watched Montreal and I was not enticed by the real estate market..the Montreal I love is downtown and the Plateau! or even Old Town.
Tomorrow is London...whoppee!

I'd love to see what they show and say about London. Make sure you have your heart attack pills ready for when they start talking prices.

I can't resist the UK equivalents of these programmes. At one time it was all about looking for a ruin to do up somewhere sunny and picturesque, but now they seem to be a bit more hardheaded about holiday rental values, and so on. You might be interested to know they have done some US trips - one on Florida, I recall, and one on Oklahoma (don't ask me why, I imagine it must have something to do with the interests of the people who volunteer to appear).

Yes, the shows A Place in the Sun, My Place in the Sun, Dream Home Abroad and Get a New Life (and many more) focus on Brits buying property overseas. Shows about Brits fleeing the UK for sunnier and cheaper shores elsewhere seem to have replaced the previous batches of home makeover shows (which were mostly about hiding a home's flaws with as little money as possible...as yet, there is no British equivalent to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition). Their favorite U.S. destination is central Florida (one show said that Brits accounted for almost half of the home sales in the Orlando area one year...don't know if that's true but places like The Villages now have large sales offices in the UK). The Florida episodes frequently show Brits from the London area salivating over what their £££ will buy them..."I can live like a pop star!" exulted one in a recent show.

True - not many UK homes have a swimming pool you can crash your Humvee into...

Thought the Montreal episode was a little ho-hum. Wish I could speak French as well as the woman house-hunter. Still bummed about missing Florence.

Betsy, me too but as my husband reminded me, these programs show re-runs forever!

Patrick, I have looked at online Realtor sites in London this past year..both a friend in Hampstead who was moving and sharing with me and for us ( we had dreams!) so I am sort of prepared for the prices :)
Paris will be fun, what other cities are being shown?

Scarlett, check my post near the top of the thread for the other cities to be shown.

Don't miss the episode tonight on London.

Betsy, thank you!
I am ready to see London tonight !

I live in the Central Florida area, and just this past week there was a newspaper article about the British "explosion" here. In fact, in one area fairly near Disney, there are many English-stlye pubs that bring in the football and rugby matches from there. I would say, after watching the London House-Hunting show tonight, that they should be able to live like their royalty in this area!

I too missed the Florence episode but I watched the London part tonight. I am glad he picked the flat or house or whatever it is he did. It seemed like the best to me.

It looked just like the place my friend lives in in London, it always strikes me as so odd that they mostly all look alike, same floor plans mostly.

So, what did he pick in London? What neighborhood and how much? (We don't get the show here.)

bummer, I thought it was only one night, I tivo'd Florence but missed all the rest. What is tonight?

I'm sorry I don't remember the area in London, but it was a semi-detached (duplex) with common walls. Hopefully someone with a better recall will post here!

The area of London was called Balham which I guessed was south of the Thames and in or near the East End, a working class neighborhood on its way up. I've been to London lots of times and have never heard of it so I think that it is not in the tourist area. I chuckled when they referred to it as "Diaper Valley" (the Brits call Diapers "Nappys") because it is where young families go to raise the kids.

Anyway does it sound hopeful for the young man when his girlfriend asked him to leave her flat and go find his own?

Tonight is Barcelona, Spain.

I look forward to Barcelona tonight !