Buying a house

No, not us!  But in our newspaper recently, there was an interactive map where you could click on any city in Limburg Province (our equivalent of a state) to see the cost of buying property.

As we all know in the States . . . location, location, location are the 3 most important things when buying property and the price reflects it.  Aside from that, square footage is calculated.

Here, (and by here, I mean Hasselt) it's not exactly the same - there's not really a "more desirable" part of town. Location is critical, but usually means living near the city center or not living near the city center.  And square footage isn't that critical in calculating price.

So, in Hasselt  . . .

a rowhouse (like where we live) -  costs $285,000 and is usually pretty old

a villa (house with a "lot") - costs $409,000

an apartment - costs $291,000

and land is $217 per sq meter.

The average lot in the US is 110 x 130 ft. (about 1/3 of an acre) and might look something like this.

One acre of land in Hasselt costs a whopping $877,982! So that same lot up there would be somewhere around $300,000.

But no worries because the average lot is not that big.  Not nearly that big.  A lot in the US is normally 3 times bigger than a lot here.

Here's a lot listed for sale right now.  It's on a 4-lane road, slightly busier than our street - and busier only because ours is a 2-lane road.  

We are conveniently located next to a pharmacy and not next to the erotic store (which also appears to be for sale). 

Here's an aerial view of the same lot - at least it has room for a little yard in the back like ours.  And unlike ours, there's room for a tiny courtyard in the front and a garage in the back.  Bonus.

How much?  $100,000.  I'm fairly certain you couldn't build anything on that lot for $185,000 so I guess the row house price isn't that bad.