About how much would your monthly mortgage be on a home $140,000 us dollars in France?

Question

Can you get a decent home for that?About how much does it cost per week to feed a family?

Answer 1

Absolutely, but in certain areas only. Forget Paris or any seaside area for that price. $140k  would be 95,000 euros. If you check a real estate website, you will find a lot of condos and even big houses for under 100,000. Just as a huge

house in Nebraska won't even buy you a closet-sized condo in Manhattan, there are regional variations in France too. Mortgage rates are lower in France. However, if you live in a cheaper area it will most likely be more remote and you will rely more on your car than public transportation. In this case, keep in mind that gas prices are much higher (but car insurance is much cheaper!) Cheap real estate is also in areas where job opportunities are scarce. So you need to take a lot of things into consideration. There are heaps of offers for houses priced around 70,000 or less, so buying real estate is not the problem in itself, the problem is making a living there and not being too far from the nearest school for your kids.

Food costs depend on your tastes and needs, on whether you cook or buy prepared meals but for a couple we spend 100 euros/week near Paris and we like high quality food (but we cook ourselves and eat mostly vegetarian, which is cheaper and we buy large quantities rather than small packages and freeze leftovers). It is easy to eat well on a low budget.

It is definitely cheaper to raise a family in France than in the US for a variety of reasons that I could develop if you wanted.

I must add that I live in Taxachusetts right now so everything seems more expensive to me here than it did when I lived in France but if you come from a state where the cost of living is less, then France might seem more expensive. It all depends on what you are comparing with and which regions you are comparing on either side of the Atlantic.

Now to answer your initial question on your monthly mortgage, it's easy to answer: it will be one third of your family's net monthly income. You may decide to pay less but the bank won't allow you to pay more (unless you submit solid evidence that your other living costs are lower than most people for some reason). Then the number of years will be adjusted based on that. It's not like here where you have 15 or 30-year loans. The number of years is whatever you need and doesn't have to be a multiple of 5 (for instance the duration of my loan was 19 years). Interest rates vary between 4.4 % and 5.1 %. There are far lower rates available in certain cases too if you open a special savings account for real estate. So you may use one of the many online mortgage calculators to calculate your mortgage based on the info you will enter:

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/mortgage-cal...

So with a 20-year loan of 90,000 € at 5%, you would be paying under 600/month.

When you buy real estate in France, you must also pay "frais de notaire" (some sort of attorney fees) which usually amount to +/- 7% of the purchase price. The exact percentage will vary depending on several factors, how old the building is being the main factor. Property tax varies a lot too from town to town. Once again, if I compare between my home town outside Paris and what it would be outside Boston for the same type of place, it is over 3 times cheaper in France.

Answer 2

With the current exchange rates, $140k will not get you very far.

The current average price per m² is around 3000 euros (ie $4300). This would get you a 32 m² appartment, enough for 1 person but probably not more.

In Paris and large cities the price is higher than that.

But you can see for yourself on many real estate websites such as: www.seloger.com

Answer 3

What do you mean ? Buy a house, a condo or build a cottage ?

For 140.000 $ you'll find flats in medium cities such as Toulouse, far from the center and not more than 400 sq ft. then you'll be the owner -

Hire a flat is what people do here - in Paris center a decent 1000 sqft, you will rent for 1800$ /month or more -

Per week a family of four persons - food,depends on your tastes - will not be less than 400 $ - including washing and hygien goods

I f you don't accept, mainly in Paris, to choose an accomodation, purchase or rent in the suburbs- you must be a millionaire