American family calls its quits on overpriced NYC, buys home in Italy for $13K: Nothing is that important
A family who gave up on living in pricey New York City moved to a remote part of Italy after buying a home there for only about $13,000.Cassandra Tresl, 33, told CNBC that she and her husband decided to rethink their future after welcoming their daughter in 2020, concluding that homeownership in the Big Apple was simply out of reach.She said at the time, the family was paying $2,000 per month to rent their apartment — a bargain by New York standards.But they fell victim to the affordability crisis in the city, where the average age of homeowners recently reaching a stunning high of 58.8 years old.“I couldn’t imagine realistically saving up for a down payment to buy a house somewhere in New York,” the young mom lamented.Instead, the family bought a house in Italy’s Abruzzo region in 2022 for roughly 11,500 euros, or about $13,000 — moving there permanently in 2023, according to Tresl.“The fact that we were able to buy a house all in cash honestly at that time felt unbelievable,” said Tresl, who called NYC home from 2015 to 2019.She said the family spent another 15,000 euros, or about $17,000, renovating and decorating the home, with the largest expense being roughly $3,000 to redo plumbing for the entire house.While many Italians would consider an Abruzzo village the middle of nowhere, the family deliberately avoided the country’s more touristy destinations.
They ended up in an unnamed town of about 1,300, Tresl writes on her blog.“Abruzzo stood out to us,” Tresl said, explaining that her fam shunned “mass tourism” in regions like Tuscany.She described the area they now call home as an authentic hilltop community.It’s about three hours east of Rome.The move dramatically reduced many of the family’s recurring expenses.Tresl said full-time preschool for their daughter costs just $70 a month — a fraction of what friends with kids of similar ages pay in big US cities.Electricity averages about $170 a month and water is around $80.
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