Americans Are Ruining Europe!

So we hear.

An article appeared on Friday in The New York Times called Americans Head to Europe for The Good Life on the Cheap. One friend sent it to us that morning for our thoughts, and I imagine others will soon, so we decided to go ahead and talk about it here. 

The article is interesting and worth a read, but the gist of it is in the title subheading: Home sales to Americans [in Europe] have increased significantly, giving them a chance to enjoy a lifestyle they could not afford in major U.S. cities, but the influx risks upsetting local residents.

The story focuses on Portugal, Spain, and Greece, which have done the most courting of foreign investors. No coincidence that they are among the poorest countries in the EU.

Average yearly salaries in 2021

• Portugal average yearly salary = below €20,000

• Greek average yearly salary = below €20,000

• Spanish average yearly salary = below €30,000

Americans are going to these countries, buying up property, and hiking up the cost of living for the locals, who were already struggling to make ends meet. Many Americans have been choosing these three countries for the Golden Visas that were being offered. A Golden Visas is attainable by spending a certain amount of money in the country, either through a cash property purchase or a business investment. The countries offering them hoped to boost their economies with the cash stream, but this has backfired with the rising price of the housing markets (I mentioned in an earlier newsletter that Portugal was ending its Golden Passport program, and now we know why). 

I read the Times article feeling alternatively sympathetic, guilty, and defensive about our eventual move to France. As a native Austinite, I know what it’s like to see your hometown taken over by tourists and “foreigners” (Californians) who jack up the prices of rent and real estate. Many of my friends, writers and musicians, have been forced by doubled rents to move out of the city. And who knows how many talented people will never even consider Austin due to how expensive it has become.

With that in mind, will we be doing the same thing when we move to Montpellier? Are we taking housing away from the local French citizens or causing other housing to become unaffordable for them? Are we going to ruin the place we love merely by moving there or talking about moving there in a public forum? 

The article does not mention France at all, so I did my own research.

• France average yearly salary = €39,300

• Montpellier average yearly salary = €40,000

  • Yearly salary in Montpellier for a nurse = €48,000

  • Yearly salary in Montpellier for a pharmacist = €70,000 (!!)

  • Yearly salary in Montpellier for a bartender = €22,200

For those of you who might be wondering:

• United States average yearly salary = $97, 962.

• Austin, TX average yearly salary = $111,000.

• The average home price in Austin = $600,000

Yes, I am totally guilty of telling people left and right that Montpellier is cheaper than Austin. We were consistently shocked by our dinner bills, which were less than our meals out at home. We were delighted to find an apartment that we love within our price range. We are excited for what the article calls "a cosmopolitan lifestyle," where we can trade “a car-dependent lifestyle for the chance to live in a vibrant, European city." 

All of those things are true, but I feel like the author left out many components of the growing American diaspora. One factor is the pandemic, which demonstrated that people could work from anywhere. Now untethered, they are looking all over the globe. 

Secondly, she talks about the class of the immigrating Americans (middle and upper middle class) but not their ages. Gen X and Millenials have a different relationship to Europe than Boomers do. For Gen Xers, our parents were born during or just after World War II. They grew up hearing horror stories of people fleeing Europe for a better life in the United States. When it came time to retire, not many Boomers looked to Europe for a chill new life. They’re happy with their cruise ships and bus tours, thank you very much.

Thirdly, and most surprisingly, the writer does not mention American politics even once in the article. She says nothing about mass shootings, the obliteration of women’s rights, the lack of a social safety net, the open talk of civil war, and the hatred between right and left that has split our nation in two.

Americans are not currently moving to Europe merely to drink wine and gaze at the ocean. People are moving because they no longer feel safe or good about the United States. This probably sounds extreme to my California and New York friends, but remember that we live in Texas. I attend rallies at the capital building in Austin—pro women, prochoice, pro immigrant—and each time I am tremendously frightened, frightened of someone driving into the crowd, a sniper firing from a nearby building, or a counter-protestor producing a firearm. As of 2021, Texas law no longer requires people to have a license to carry in order to carry a handgun in most public places. 

Before we decided to make the move to France, I would lay awake imagining us having to flee Austin in the middle of the night, cramming our dogs and suitcases into one car and speeding towards California with truckloads of gun fanatics hot on our tail. There is a reason that we have named our newsletter "Escape Hatch."

Many people have assumed we are moving permanently to France very soon. We are not. We’re buying an apartment there, and we will treat it like a vacation home for many years to come, but it is very comforting to know we will have somewhere to go if things here get worse.

It is inevitable that while we are in France we will unknowingly behave like "ugly Americans.” Already we find the service at restaurants painfully slow. As you know, we have found the French bureaucracy to be absurd in its abundance of paperwork and slowness in processing it. However, we are working hard on speaking the language. We are reading about the history and customs of the area. We are not using the purchase of property as a tax harbor (I don’t think this is a thing for Americans in France. If it is, don’t tell me). We will pay a whopping tax on the purchase of our apartment—our first deposit into their social system. And we will immerse ourselves in the culture and people and not just hang out with other Americans!

Okay. End of defensive rant.

We are very curious to hear what you think about the Times article. Several people have talked to us about moving to Portugal and one friend has already bought a house in Spain. Does the article make you feel differently about moving abroad?

Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time),

Carolyn & Roberto

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