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[Berserker]

I'm trying to find a place to live together with my girlfriend, but it's friggin near impossible to get a house to rent where I live. You got like a system of a corporation who handles all the houses that are for rent around here, you need to join them (that is pay every year).
Then you get to react every other week on three houses max and the give the house to whoever has the longest waiting time or maybe has some sort of urgency. Now the problem is you have to wait up to 5,6 years in order to get a house. I'm waiting for nearly four years and still finish somewhere in the middle
Now we're looking maybe to buy a house but the average house around here costs 220-280.000 € , we're looking for a small apartment around 70 square metres and three rooms and it costs around 200.000 €!!!

How are the house prices where you're from? How is the renting of houses? Is it organised just as frustrating as here? And last but not least do any of you guys have plans to live on your own/together or are you already doing so? Let me know...

[Pu the Owl]

Actually, when I was a more active University student, I used to live on my own, with Harry. We had the chance to rent an apartment and live on our own as many students do during their University years. It lasted for two years or so, but when we realized the house we were living in was a nightmare (a real swamp, with snails, spiders, every kind of insects, rats and other disgusting things, to not mention the contorsionist neighbor who kept on trying to give us any kind of trashy rotten vegetables pretending they were "excellent for dinner!" and used to drink litres and litres of beer), it was nearly impossible to find a new apartment. All prices were too high. A small room with a kitchen and a bathroom, not in a very central zone of the city, I am talking about Rome where I study, was around 600-700 €/month, in the cheapest cases it was around 400-500 €/month (meaning for each person, not as a total), not necessarily including extra expenses (electricity etc...). Most of these apartments sucked. A little less was if you decided to live with a family, but "hey, I'm not leaving my own family to be with another family or complete strangers! I want to be indipendent!"... that's what I thought... We thought we could live with some other student, renting just a room in some house with people like us, but no way we could find a place where both girls and boys were allowed. Only girls for the greatest part of apartments, or I could choose to live being the only girl in a house with 4-5 unknown boys (plus Harry). Since I know pretty well that when guys are living alone in groups are not very tidy and "clean", I didn't want to end becoming a slave. So... nothing, I gave up and came back home to live with my parents. Until I have a proper work and I earn enough to pay, I can't do much. And we're talking about rents, not about buying. Rome is very expensive regarding houses, especially near the Vatican or in other similar zones near monuments (which are everywhere! damn!). Other zones are terrible and can also be quite dangerous (plus, are ugly, dirty and depressing, there's no way I'm going there! ).

so yes, I can understand your frustration!

[goodman]

Ive owned my house for about seven years now, used to rent it, but even then it was cheap. Most of the rent here where i live is around $500 minimum a month, and can easily go to 1 k a month. But there is no problem finding housing, there is plenty of it. My sister lives in California now, where the housing is considerably pricier, probably two to three times higher than here in Texas. They will probably be renting for a good while from what ive heard...