American reacts to House Prices in Germany

Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to real estate house prices in Germany right now!
Thanks for subscribing for more German reactions every weekday!
Join as a member to get the ridiculous emojis and badge!
/ @ryanwass
Got a video request? You can fill out this form!
forms.gle/gmHJ...
Got a fun local news story? Submit it here!
forms.gle/FvRA...
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS

[@Lichti82]

Same old joke: houses in the US are cheaper because you have to buy a new one after each thunderstorm 😅

[@ryanwass]

Nooooo just a new roof!

[@alidemirbas6566]

​@@ryanwass Yeah, but the house's location might be somewhere else, as you can see in the "Wizard of Oz". This fascinating documentary about American life has been shown in German schools for decades and is very popular with children.

[@karingoerke7264]

What they call House wouldn't get called Gartenhaus in Germany, because they are built more strong and are isolated. American Houses like German "Schuppen" so, the Garage of the lawn mower 😂

[@avysark2034]

​@@karingoerke7264it should be said that houses can be built quite sturdy, even with 4x6 and that there are plenty of good builds, only that the focus there is more often than not on cheap and quick builds that'll last just long enough so the builder can't be sued anymore. On the other hand, Germany and Europe in general have probably plenty of other flaws in this field, which the US doesn't have and I'm saying that as someone who's no big fan of the latter.

[@wisi4044]

​@@ryanwasswe have houses older than america 🇨🇭

[@stuborn-complaining-german]

The secon house doesn't actually exist yet. Those pictures are computer generated to get you to contact them. Then they will tell you that for the price quoted you actually only get a garden shed, and to get whats in the pictures you need to pay 1-2 Mil.. ..😆

[@goodgame2064]

Noo leave him in his imagination

[@Trymon1980]

Also this should be just the price for the house. You need also some land to build on

[@rottenlettus]

Yep, the 2. one is probably just the foundation, floor, walls, roof, doors and windows. Maybe the Bathroom is included. For everything else you have to pay extra

[@sandrasauerkraut8741]

@@rottenlettusI‘d bet a lot of money that bathrooms are NOT included. Probably not even the doors.

[@mats7492]

indeed. THAT house in berlin is over 1 million easily..

[@eaglevision993]

Regarding the first house on your list, "mit viel Potential" is real estate agent´s talk for "it will fall apart without a complete rebuilt."

[@mats7492]

"with lots of potential" means its a complete dump and you have invest at least another 100k in renovating it if not more

[@hypatian9093]

"Reparaturstau" is at least honest, but very euphemistic.

[@eaglevision993]

@@hypatian9093 Other great describtions of a dump are "Heimwerkertraum", "viel Platz für individuelle Ideen", "rustikales Ambiente", "leichter Reparaturstau", "Rohdiamant"...

[@ThomasGanterPrien]

Our house was built in the 70s. The 1770s ... 😊

[@sabinereimer7809]

Houses in Germany are mostly really build like the people want them... because if you can afford to build a house you assume to live in there for the rest of your life! Most of these are build out of cinderblock with concrete. The rooms have doors that you can regulate the heat in every room individually. The room you were thinking as a garage was a basement with a heating system (the big red thing).😊

[@BlueFlash215]

This isn't that common anymore. It was until a decade ago. Now "Fertighäuser", partial pre-built homes, are on the rise as a cheap alternative. You can customize them a little, depending on what type you go for. Basically you can fit different types of rooms into the square they give you as an outer wall.

[@slack84]

You wondered how durable german roofs are, so here's a good example for you: My parents house was built in 1898 and we bought it in the early 90's and back then the roof was in good shape, still got all the original woodwork just a few tiles needed to be replaced. but my dad knew he would at some point need to renovate the whole roof as the woodwork was a hundred years old. in 2017 then a huge storm damaged part of the roof and we had carpenters there to check what exactly needs to be renewed. Turns out almost all of the original Woodworks was still in a really good shape (back in the 19th century they used massive oak beams and trusses to ensure the roof would endure a long time) so just a few oak beams/trusses needed to be replaced where the storm struck, that and a few new tiles and we were good to go. So with good maintenance a well built German roof could last for over 100 years.

[@hypatian9093]

The house I live in got new tiles + insulation under it for its 100th birthday some years ago. The roof framework needed no work and should be good for the next decades :)

[@caroline6544]

I am so fascinated that you cannot recognize a regular (maybe more modern designed) Ceiling lamp. 😂I really wonder now what lights in the US look like. But I really like this format. Please do this more often! And maybe also look at some flats; this shows better how most people live in cities. There is a huge range.

[@101steel4]

They all seem to have the same. Tiny round globe thing, or those ghastly ceiling fans.

[@caroline6544]

Thats kinda boring.😂 It must be a sad place for product or furniture designers@@101steel4

[@AHVENAN]

Ceiling fans are, from what I understand extremely common in the US, I've heard some people say they have one in basically every room except maybe the bathroom and entrance hall

[@101steel4]

@@AHVENAN yes they love them. I can't stand them personally. They remind me of 1970s Asian homes.

[@Herzschreiber]

haha same here. I guess it is because of this somehow old fashioned style (70ies maybe?). Or do Americans really not have any long ceiling lamps hanging above their dinner tables?

[@eaglevision993]

My grampa built my current home in the early 80s. I still have the original bills from the contractors which total around 200.000 DM (roughly 100.000 Euro, without inflation). After an addition and extensive renovation it was valued at 1.4 million from by the insurance company last year. Prices are all over the place.

[@denzzlinga]

The same with land values. My great grandparents got a small field as present from their aunt when they married in the late 30s, and today it´s a worth well over 1 million (+ the house). The village was a total "Kuhkaff" back then, with no infrastructure and almost farmers only living there. Today it´s more or less a suburb of a big city with more than 5 times more people living there, and all theese old farmer´s properties in the middle of the village are worth a ton of money.

[@hypatian9093]

Depends on the area and how well you did with maintenance/repairs. Small town in Northern Germany - a house in our street was torn down two years ago because nobody wanted to buy it due to "Reparaturstau". Now the owners hope that the plot itself will sell better... well... now we regularly have half a dozen sheep as neighbours that do a bit of lawn maintenance ;)

[@denzzlinga]

@@hypatian9093 i´d buy it, for the children or grandchildren.

[@jellysquiddles3194]

​@@hypatian9093The annoying thing is that people are so dillusional they think people can pay half a million for a crappy property in bad location, when they got it for 1/10th of the price (which was already a lot).

[@robopecha]

basically the other way round for my parents. they spent around a million in the early 80s on building the house they wanted and sold it a few years ago for 350.000€, because no one was willing to pay more. its a great and unique house with super expensive materials from all over the world, but in a shitty small town.

[@sudarshandahal2144]

400k for a house, almost anywhere in germany is considered incredible price. Also we use . instead of commas for thousands. So 2.400 was 2.4K as the rent of the whole house without utilities.

[@hannessteffenhagen61]

400k around where I live is doable, but any less than that is probably a scam.

[@spanishcrab]

If you think those prices are expensive, try to look for Munich prices

[@lulaa123]

Yeah he really should do that. I just looked up houses in Munich and they basically start at a million

[@mats7492]

Or Hamburg.. they dont even start under 1.5 million!

[@ririri88]

You have to inherit a fortune or be a russian oligarch 😂 or both.

[@TobiasTimpe]

„My house is old. It was built in the …“ - Why was I expecting him to say 80s or 90s? 😀

[@uliwehner]

same here. My house here in Georgia is "old" it was built in the 70s. It is very typical to buy houses like mine, which sits on 2 acres (8000m2) in the woods, completely gut the interior, rip out walls, convert to more open floor plan, add more bathrooms, etc. i have a 5 bedroom house with 2.5 bathrooms. Modern houses would have a bathroom per bedroom. So i would end up with say 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. This is a 10 room house btw. 3500 square foot. i bought it for a little over 200k 20 years ago, right now it is valued over 400k.

[@MaryRaine929]

There are different kinds of problems with buying/building houses in Germany: 1. We have much less space than in the US. Building land is rare, small and expensive (what often leads to the beachtowel garden😆). 2. Existing houses are often owned by older people, who built a big house for their children, that moved out a long time ago. Now they still live there alone or as a couple, which is totally legit, but at the same time families with more than one child often have a hard time finding an adequate place to live. Same problem with renting. 3. Speculation of course. 🙄

[@manub.3847]

Additions: 1) By today's standards, almost 700 square meters is already generous in some areas, as individual houses sometimes stand on almost 300 square meters of land. 2) Especially at retirement age, it is often a difficult decision: you often only pay the additional costs (insurance, property tax, energy costs, etc.) which you can cover from your pension and in this way try to maintain an inheritance for your children/grandchildren. And selling to move into a rental apartment or smaller condo sometimes involves higher costs. Example: House without energy renovation sold for €380,000 -> new apartment with amenities within walking distance (shopping, doctors, etc.) may then cost more than you got for your house, since senior-friendly access and bathrooms as well as new energy standards are already met. (or still have to be installed by you) Pensioners often pay less in rented apartments because they have been tenants for decades and cannot financially afford to "exchange" the large 4-room apartment for a smaller 2-room apartment because they would then pay a higher rent.

[@eaglevision993]

Yeah, like my neighbors. They had 2 children and one of their parents lived with them in a nice 4000 sqft home. Now there´s just the 2 of them and they basically use 3 rooms.

[@Leenapanther]

A Germany has a lot of space to build houses compared to Switzerland. Single family houses get replaced with six apartment buildings.

[@Lisa-xn9xc]

If you want to buy a house in a village you will have no problem to find something big (it would be harder to find something small). It's a problem when you want to rent something. When the old people die and their children get the house, it's not worth the effort to rent it - they would have to divide the rent by multiple heirs, one of them would have to take care of the renters, there would always be discussions about what to repair, how to do it and so on. Plus you could have problems with 'Mietnomanden' - people who don't pay the rent, destroy things and live there for a year until you can force them to leave and then they do the same thing in the next house. It's easier to sell it.

[@cantinadudes]

​@@Lisa-xn9xcyou can force people out after a month not a year

[@analholes77]

The one in Marburg was on a quite big land area around 7500 square foot. It was actually a very good deal. Marburg is still in commuting distance to Frankfurt and Rhine/Main area, where you pay double for that easily.

[@mrjohnosterman]

Von Marburg nach Frankfurt pendeln ist aber eigentlich pervers... Zug und Auto jeweils ne Stunde ein Weg. Ich hab's zwei Jahre lang gemacht und würde es nie mehr tun.

[@biancaj.d.148]

@@mrjohnosterman Nur wenn alles wie geplant fährt... Ich habe von Butzbach aus nach Niederwalgern regelmäßig drei Stunden oder länger gebraucht, weil die Strecke ständig ein anderes Problem hat...

[@mrjohnosterman]

@@biancaj.d.148 Ja das kommt ja noch dazu… mich hat das gewarte und die Ausfälle usw irgendwann nur noch krank gemacht

[@1337Arnonym]

You have to take in consideration the 3 most important factors which dertermine the price: 1. location 2. location and not forget about: 3. location In rural areas you can buy a 150 qm 2 story house (2-4 bedrooms, 1-2 bathrooms and a 600-900 qm yard) for 200.000 - 350.000 €. Same price which only will get you a 1-2 room apartement in a big city (i.e. munich, hamburg, berlin).

[@fgregerfeaxcwfeffece]

I think infrastructure might be 3 in some occasions. But that's arguably part of location. And if you go REALLY rural you can even go below 100k. But then there is no discussion, you need a car. For everything. (Including picking up packages left with a neighbor in some cases.)

[@steemlenn8797]

In an East German 30K town you can buy 4 or 6 family houses for 200-300K. Of course those houses are a bit older and the last deep renovation was probably in the late 90s. But it's not like it's hard to live in them. Or a "Bungalow with lots of potential" for under 100K.

[@MyvIsLove2]

how tho? my 64m² apartment was 130k already and I live in the smallest town

[@jackydoucet9037]

With regard to rural areas it really depends where the rural is located. For instance in the South West of Germany, you'll easily pay 300 k only for the land itself. So the entire house will not cost less than 500-600 k in the cheapest version.

[@sungi7814]

In Bayern ist es nirgendwo rural genug dass das ausreicht.

[@Attirbful]

Note also, that in Germany, there is no mandatory home owner‘s association membership as in the U.S. There are home owner‘s associations that you can voluntarily become a member of and they advise you in legal questions, but there is no neighborhood gang that can ask you to trim your lawn or adhere to certain neighborhood standards. We have government agencies for that (such as restricting the shape or style a house being built in an already existing neighborhood so as to keep a historical or local appearance of an entire neighborhood intact, or what color you can paint your house etc.)

[@snowjaeger6113]

If you own an apartment, then you definitely need to become a member of the home owners association of the building/property… but this homeowner associations are set-up completely differently. Also, town houses are also often organized in homeowner associations, where central heating or communal gardens exist, or other community owned installations, like a common roof.

[@Attirbful]

@@snowjaeger6113 Yeah, as I never owned an apartment or a house in the U.S. but only rented, I do not know much about these associations. I am very interested in American architecture though and in particular historical homes and follow a Facebook group on historical houses on the market as well as other realty-related groups and there first encountered the concept of them. Here in Germany, I currently own two houses and, as said, we do not have these associations with a mandated membership and regular contributions… Here, communal property is taken care of by the municipal agencies and paid for via taxes, for home owners in particular the “Grundsteuer.“ From these, things such as street upkeep, street lighting, snow service on the streets, the canalization upkeep etc. are paid for.

[@snowjaeger6113]

@@Attirbfulby communal I don’t mean city or country property. Often multiple townhouses share a single roof or central heating with their neighbors. Particularly often I ran across this in lower Germany. So if you own such a town house in Germany you need to pay into the HOA (ETG) for maintenance and renovations. HOAs 🏡 in the USA 🇺🇸 however have a very different mission and rights than ETGs 🏡 in Germany 🇩🇪

[@Attirbful]

@@snowjaeger6113 As far as I know, however, in the U.S. the HOA can go as far as dictating certain measures to unattached houses, entire neighborhoods so to speak as well as ask for mandatory contributions to neighborhood watches, for example. I‘ll have to do some research on this…

[@elsapain4172]

Pls watch a episode of "die Schnäppchenhäuser" XD its about "normal" german people buying cheap houses and then re-buildiing most of it on there own. And if i remember right, there was often familie/people too that bought absolut ruins and needed then to move in cause they already quit there old homes(so has trash tv also a bit in it^^)

[@Snapatmung]

we try to keep the doors shut for energy efficiency reasons, to keep rooms heated.

[@QuikkNic]

Yeah, that’ll save us 🎉

[@Snapatmung]

@@QuikkNic 1. its about saving money for me and my family 2. that attitude does not save anyone but you

[@wolfgangpreier9160]

And open all windows the whole day to "LÜFTEN"!

[@t.a.k.palfrey3882]

"My house is old. It was built in the 30s", he says. My closest friend's family home was built in 1430s, but has had some additions since, most recently around 1880s. As in the US, some cities are more expensive in Germany, notably München and Frankfurt. In Munich, a 4-bed house in the suburbs is around €1.7 million. With a decently large yard in an upper-middle class neighbourhood, it is more like €3 to €3.5 million.

[@JHenry-wv1xv]

The cheapest houses are still in rural eastern Germany. Not so many anymore, but still a few exceptional properties. Mine cost just under $20,000, very much in need of renovation but habitable, 650sqft of living space, 1500sqft of outbuildings (garages, sheds and a gymnasium that looks like an old brick church without a steeple), 10,000sqft of land (overgrown sports field framed by old trees). Actually I was looking for a 2 bedroom apartment, but that was cheaper calculated on 10 years.

[@lmchron9343]

Never seen a house for under 100k in germany. 20k sounds like ur trolling

[@klarasee806]

Must be in VERY rural eastern Germany, without okayish internet, next doctor about 50km away, no school, no kindergarten, very poor infrastructure in general, very much in need of renovation, very old oil heating (if any heating at all), very poor insulation (> high energy costs)… okay, maybe, if you are very „lucky“. I have once looked for something like that, just out of curiosity, but the cheapest houses I found back then were WAYYYYY more than 20.000 €, and in most cases only somewhat habitable after renovation.

[@eaglevision993]

@@lmchron9343 In rural parts of the former GDR territory you can very well find a home for 20k. Even less. But it will be in need of a full renovation or better yet teardown and rebuild. The land there is cheap and a crappy house on it actually depreciates the value of the lot since most of them are inhabitable.

[@blatterrascheln2267]

​@@lmchron9343Can happen, my parents house went with around 75.000, but without any surrounding property in the middle of a village, no garden, no anything, with expecting major renovations in electrics and with a floor plan not suitable for modern times, only a coal-cellar and a half-usable attic, all around 160 m2. It was an inhabitable home but no fun if you want something modern and open with connected rooms and maybe two bathrooms or something. When sold, they basically build a whole new inside and crammed 4 apartments inside :(

[@hannessteffenhagen61]

20k? The ruins of a medieval barn in the middle of a swamp don’t count. Anything within commuting distance of a place that has running water and jobs starts at 200k, and more like 300-500 including renovation costs.

[@Briefstuder]

Marburg is a town with a pretty big University so it’s more expensive to live there than in a „normal“ town in the countryside.

[@fraumeh]

Most of the pictures with the neat looking, modern houses were "fake", they are just advertising how you could build a house with that offer - and the prices of these "still to built"-houses often seem cheap, but it's just the "Rohbau", like the walls, basic floors, windows, doors, pipes and electricity - no installed lights, no real floor, no wallpaper, obviously no kitchen...so you still have to invest a lot more. And you have to keep in mind that there is a huge variety of different houses in Germany, as they come from many different decades...you have cute, crooked "Fachwerkhäuser" that you have to keep in a certain state because they are registered medieval monuments and you can't modernize them too much, you have quite beautiful old houses that look very fancy from the outside but are shabby inside because they need modernization, you have very ugly concrete buildings from after WWII, where they just tried to fill in the gaps left by bombs, and you have fancy designer-houses that no normal person can ever afford, sometimes with very special but not very practical features (like an open sleeping space on a gallery above the living room, or beautiful but dangerous stairways.) Plus, the prices even in the rural areas of some parts are insane, espacially as you have to invest a lot nowadays to modernize the heating system and install solar panels to "survive" the rising energy costs.

[@xxx_phantom_xxxw_t_a9479]

Hello from Switzerland, I think in Germany it is similar to ours, the prices fluctuate significantly depending on the area in which you are looking for something. Berlin is probably at the top when it comes to property prices, which means that the house on it quickly becomes irrelevant because the land alone costs a fortune. In Zurich, one m2 of building land costs on average around 3,400 CHF (approx. 3,600 EUR).

[@McGhinch]

While Marburg seems to be a small city, it has a good university. It also is the home of the Marburger Bund, a union of employed doctors. Many people in Marburg are not on the poorer side of life. (This is a very abbreviated statement -- for more colors investigate yourself.)

[@hypatian9093]

Yes, houses + apartments even in smaller cities are expensive if there's a university.

[@juliaclaire42]

He was good at picking cities with universities. Bamberg also has a good one.

[@McGhinch]

@@juliaclaire42He is, but I wouldn't want that house. It is out in the middle of almost nowhere. You need a car for shopping. There is no grocer and just one restaurant (pizzeria) there. And with our freak weather you first must make the boiler room water proof -- the Baunach (the little creek) might come calling.

[@ursschnatterfleck6019]

I ❤ Marburg! Pretty town with nice people.

[@tarik2021]

1. The location of the house is a main factor of how much it costs. 2. You forgot to put a Yard in the costs. A house which has 140m2 livingspace doesn´t cost 500k, but a house with 140m2 livingspace and a complete size(Grundstück) of 500m2 does cost that much. "Grundstück" means the complete size of the yard and house (1,2,3,...floor and cellar doesn´t count towards it). It get´s measured like there would be no house. In some places in Austria only the "Grundstück" can cost with ~700m2 from 50-200k in the country and up to 1.3mill. in a city, in the Capital a 945m2 "Grundstück" costs 3mil. (3.400$/m2) and that´s not even that much found even one which costs +4.000$/m2. 3. Our houses aren´t hounted we would call the police and sue them for "Lärmbelestigung nach ruhezeiten" and/or "Sachbeschädigung".

[@manub.3847]

b) Not to forget that he perceived the “advertising” for a “basic house” without land as a cheap price. It's good if you have (inherited) a property and can do all the interior work yourself, including the bathroom and heating. Otherwise the house would cost at least twice as much + land. Here in our town (Northern Germany) the square meter of building land costs €650 and in the next small town it costs “only” €500 per square meter. The joke is that in the next small town there are a few apartment blocks with 14 or 15 floors and more rented units, which push the purchase prices down a bit. Otherwise you can say that today you pay around 4 times the original purchase price for a house from the 1980s/1990s.

[@Gigaearl]

I live in a village near Marburg, my house only cost €21,500. Okay, there's a bit of work to be done on it, I've been renovating for 10 years now. The housewarming party is scheduled for 2053

[@klaus.kinsky3954]

I recommend the Drachenschanze in Altschauerberg. But the house itself is only recommended for demolition 😂

[@KatieLeary]

You got to see a bit of the housing crisis that Germany is currently facing. There are very few (affordable) houses in desirable areas available. My partner and I both earn decent salaries, but we wouldn't be able to afford a house where we are currently living -- maybe in very rural areas we could but then we would have a harder time finding a well-paying job there. Most people under the age of 40 who own houses have inherited the house from their family or received a lot of money from an inheritance to buy their own house.

[@uliwehner]

that was funny, my wife just asked my last night if we could move back to Germany and specifically to Bamberg. Bamberg is really pretty and "historic". I was born about an hours drive from there.

[@franhunne8929]

mieten - to rent - Haus mieten - to rent a house 216 $ per square foot - but that also includes a town with public transport (though the ticket costs extra, of course), with less danger of black outs, as the electricity cables are buried, water that is potable, and - what you do not know - Marburg may be a small town, it still has a quite renowned university which dates from 1527. That is older than your country.

[@jacki_00]

Love your videos! I'm from Germany and it's very interesting what you think about it. Also you make me laugh a lot.😂 Thank you! 11:40 it's not even that tiny for German gardens and I think it has a huge backyard because the property has 695m² 13:28 actually it's kinda cheap 😂 21:20 All houses are different here. So for me non of these houses were odd but I understand that it is for you

[@Fenster134]

I'm living in a half-timbered house built around 1436. It's pretty exciting what you can find when renovating such a house.

[@hypatian9093]

Even in younger houses. The one I live in was built a bit over a hundred years ago and they used sheets of the local newspaper as lining paper (Makulatur) - when we tore down the layers of old wallpaper and discovered that, we spent hours with reading the old newspaper :)

[@lemmi1320]

Can an American imagine that there are still inhabited houses that were built before the discovery of America? ;-)

[@MichaelBurggraf-gm8vl]

The town of Marburg has a quite popular university. Marburg being quite old has a very nice old town at its centre at the river Lahn attracting quite a number of tourists. The address appeared to me as being a bit outside of Marburg, maybe some little village or just a couple of farms.

[@K.Reimann]

The first house with a typical broker saying. "Bungalow mit viel Potential" “Bungalow with a lot of potential”. Translated, that means: “A total hovel that would actually have to be torn down and rebuilt.”😂

[@alteisenfahrer]

m< house is built in 1663 and big and wonderful, and it was cheap because it needed complete renovation which I am doing myself since aboit 5 years now

[@123batina]

In europe houses can be really expencive depending on location. There is no rule you need to build a house anywhere. If you can build a 4 story building that land instead of the run down house occupying the plot - it is worth millions.

[@McGhinch]

The last house you looked at was probably built according to older regulations. In many places you have a plat/development plan. Often you could only use a certain percentage of the premises to build the house. Also, the number of floors was often limited. I suspect it allowed for 2 1/2 floors, that is why the top floor is low-ceilinged. But, it has two garages. They are probably small, compared to newer ones. Anyhow, the don't show them so we don't know. Older buildings usually have small kitchens and bathrooms. The floor plan is by far less open. The room with that strange red thing is the boiler room. The room with the chandelier is a lobby on second floor -- you enter that from the staircase. The bedroom with the mannequin is probably a lady's room, living alone for a long time or had a very forgiving husband. The house is solidly built. By looking at it, I suspect red-brick. The stairs and floors look like man-made stone -- fashionable in the 1950s and 1960s. This house is more solid than most houses built in the US. It is also more sound proof inside the house than "all" houses in the US.

[@Anson_AKB]

for quick rough estimates you can round area measurements: 1 squaremeter is 10.76 squarefeet, thus rounded between 10 and 11, or yet even quicker: add a zero to the area, eg 450 -> 4850, rounded 4500 and the same rounding can be done for prices when 1€=1.06$ ... 450k € -> 477k $, rounded 450k $ and when area as well as price are rounded, the error is even smaller, eg 450k€/450m2 = 477k$/4850ft2

[@sandrasauerkraut8741]

„It‘s only 2 dollars and 40 cents, folks!“ 😂

[@hobbyamixd6801]

I bought my house 10 years ago, so the prices were still ok. 130000€ for 120m2 and 640m2 plot. Year of construction 1989, but newly renovated including kitchen and garden shed

[@carinad.3679]

"I find it fascinating what Americans think about German houses. The second house, which appears to be so affordable, is actually a showcase home. This means it doesn't exist in this exact form. It's just an example of how the interior could be designed. When you buy this house, you're only purchasing the shell, without the land, which must be bought separately. As you've noticed, Berlin is very expensive."

[@martinweimann438]

about the grass in the driveway: its meant to be like that, its called rasengitterstein. its designed to let rainwater soak in the ground. by the way, spraying weedkiller on driveways is not allowed in germany, it could cost you up to 50.000€.

[@julianegner5997]

For any price you find, you have to add 10% for "purchase cost" & taxes

[@florianscholl1256]

In the last house, the red thing, is the boiler/heating Room.

[@grmpflz]

Ground Floor and 1st floor of our house in Bavaria are from 1650 and still are in a good shape. Only the roof had to be changed once in 1980... . The house is built from field stones and mortar, without a cellar.

[@Jayco951]

Marburg is where the Grimm Brothers wrote their fairytales in the 1.800s. Their most Famous ones are Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty/Cinderella, Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel.

[@87Eiswolf]

We have 1500 m² and living for 230m². We was buy for 110.000€ and built for 300.000€ in Berlin. Now have the house a price of 1.400.000 €

[@nettcologne9186]

-Houses have basements in Germany..lol -When you cook (and Germans cook every day), the whole house smells like food. That's why many Germans like a kitchen with doors. But the trend is towards having an open kitchen to the living room/dining room.

[@reinhard8053]

Basements were normal but not so in new houses. Many like to spare the money if it is already tight. You need everything else but a basement can be omitted. Not a good trend in my opinion.

[@hypatian9093]

@@reinhard8053 Yeah, basements have lots of benefits. Lots of storage room, which means the floorplan of the house can be smaller (=cheaper). And you can have an utility room there (for the washing machine or freezer) and a hobbyroom. Or a guest room - which you can use yourself during heat waves in summer ;)

[@MellonVegan]

12:40 That's still the cheapest price I'd find in my city (Münster) and just about the only one I could afford with an upper middle class income. Only that here, it'll get you an 80 sqm (half the size of that one) one story building.

[@madscientist8286]

@01:35 I laughed so hard because you are spilling out them facts that we don't dare to state!

[@Frahamen]

Neighbors usually don't care about what's in someone else's garden. Although they might have an issue if you use toxins to a job you can easily do with your hands.

[@e0n2006]

This Bathtub thingy can you get at IKEA for like 15 bucks

[@Rick2010100]

Good houses are usually only a few days online, or the real estate agent sells them quickly to people on his list with people who look for a house. The houses on the oline portals are mostly overpriced and no one will buy them. The new design houses are mostly CAD design examples or Musterhäuser wich are model homes. The model homes show a type of house wich the construction company offers for a certain price, they are real and no paper mache. When the construction company changes their house design after a few years, they build new and sell the model houses.

[@snowjaeger6113]

The price quoted for the second house didn’t even include a cellar or even foundation. It says Ausbauhaus, meaning once you’ve got the foundation done all you get is four walls and a roof, not even windows, doors, rooms, sanitary installations or a kitchen. And keep on dreaming about that pool and landscaping.

[@Falk4J]

Our houses come in all materials, sizes and ages. We have houses that are even several hundred years old made of a wooden structure with clay-straw mixed walls. Most houses are made of bricks or the more modern ones of concrete or concrete blocks. Wooden houses are a rare sight to behold though.

[@Gokudo87]

With old houses "Denkmalschutz" might be something to consider, that foreigners might not be aware of. So if you buy one of those really old houses with clay walls, you will be limited to what renovations you can do. There are regulations what types of windows you are allowed to use for example. It's to preserve the original look of the house. That's why to US citizens German cities often look like out of a fairytale with the old houses.

[@Edtopia_upcycling_]

18:59 The red thing is an central heating. is powered by heating oil ( diesel) or natural gas.

[@TwinPeaksIndustries]

Our house was bought by my grand-uncle in 1968 for about 250.000 Austrian Schilling, equivalent to about 93.000€ today. Thats for a 300m² house and 1300m² of land. Today you'd pay at least half a million for something this size

[@ankag.2982]

There is one significant difference between german and american housing market - in the US, if you buy a house, apartement, condominium... you have to pay attention about the local taxes. You can end up paying a lot of monthly/yearly taxes depending on the state/area/city that you live in. I have learned, that these taxes vary extremely and can go up to the thousands every month like NYC or a few hunders in some very rural areas. It is not like that in germany. You of course pay property taxes as a house owner, but it does not vary depending on the location/state you are in, but it depends mainly on the size of the property you own. You pay property taxes yearly, I think if you have 500 qm property you pay little less than a 1000 Euros a year in Grundsteuer/Propertytax.(Iam not exactly sure about the numbers, but compared to the US market ist is forseeable and affordable) You pay a Real estate transfer tax when you buy the house but only once and that can be quite a lot. So maybe you pay a high price on the house and a lot of fees and taxes for buying it, but do not end up paying many thousands of Euros in yearly taxes every year.

[@Muriel_Naumann]

Marburg an der Lahn is a smaller town with a university in Hessen. It has a castle, a famos early gothic church and a beautiful historic centre.

[@pakabe8774]

In Germany, prebuilt houses are meant to last at least 70 years (up to 120y) massive builds or stone houses are meant to last at least 100 years (up to 150y). If taken care properly, at least stonehouses can last for centuries (with some modernisations after time).

[@anunearthlychild8569]

The room with the big red thing was probably either the basement or the boiler room. That was the big red thing - the heating system. 😉 If the room is so large, it is usually also used as a laundry room and storage room. When it comes to costs, you forget that Germany is small and land prices can be very high for building land, depending on the area. For example, the purchase price for a sqm of building land in Berlin can be around 1000 euros, in Munich you can expect three times that. So you would pay almost 2 million euros for the 695 square meters (like in Marburg) in Munich, WITHOUT a house on it.

[@sorenwitte7637]

For the conversion rate 1m² is roughly 3.2 ft² so if 100m² is 300ft² plus 20 to 30 so just m² × 3 and add a little bit to roughly get there .

[@uliwehner]

your math is "limping" as we say :) It is easier to just multiply 1m² by 10 to get square feet, since 3 times 3 is 9.... that gets you there easily and close enough.

[@julianeschulz3186]

they show you pictures with furniture and a kitchen, but it usually is sold completely empty… it’s just so that you can imagine living there better 😅

[@rbaleksandar]

The first one you saw literally says "bungalow". Who is insane enough to say a crappy bungalow for 700K EUR, that's another topic. Prices in Germany are getting insane. On average you are looking at something between 5K and 11K EUR (data is from 2022) per square meter (1 sqm ~ 10.7 sqft). Some placed (e.g. Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg) are insanely expensive and this also hits all real estate (both for buying and renting) in the region around. Eastern Germany is cheaper than Western but only if you go in the remote rural areas. The problem is that, just like in the UK, USA and so on, real estate property has been increasing much, much faster than the average income and inflation. Luckily, in Germany many people rent and there are relatively good laws regarding that. But after a specific threshold one always starts asking the question: is it worth giving all that money to a landlord and having nothing in the end plus the chances of getting evicted or is it better to invest in own property. Real estate nowadays is like the bubonic plague. It spreads and it kills anything in sight. Local business struggle to pay rent, people struggle to pay rent, owning a property means taxes and knowing freaking Chinese due to the amount of bureaucratic crap that is poured on you from the government. You have people, who can barely afford rent, while others have multiple properties and live just on that. Most landlords are anything but useful to the economy. The money they get is rarely reinvested into the economy. It ends up abroad and/or in some bank for a long, looong time.

[@KatieLeary]

The first house was in 'Berlin' but in reality a suburb more akin to Brandenburg. Really ridiculous

[@Sandfrau]

Marburg is one of the bigger cities in Hessen and like people said within an hour of Frankfurt. And the university and medical stuff is big in Marburg and Gießen (right next to Marburg). If you looking for creeper houses you have to look in in east Germany. In Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt or Thüringen.

[@G2.Eirena]

that big room was the heater-room and the red thing was a central heating.

[@snowjaeger6113]

If you buy a house in Germany, you are unlikely to resell it that quickly. Depending on the state you live in you pay between 5 to 10% of the houses value in transaction costs alone. So the idea of a starter home, as it is common in the US is not feasible in Germany. If you want to convert square meters into square foot (idiot unit) multiply it by ca. 11 (so 150 m² = 1650 ft.²) Also, kitchens and bathrooms in the US are pretty simple compared to Germany: US kitchens usually don’t have fully integrated appliances and they still cook with gas instead of induction. Bathrooms in the USA often don’t even have wall-hanging toilets. When comparing the number of rooms, in the US, you count bedrooms, in Germany, you count actual rooms: The living room, counts as a room in Germany. A house with a 600 m² property isn’t considered small in Germany, we can’t afford the urban sprawl the US has. Where is in the US he would have a mortgage for a house, in Germany you would get a hypothec, so the terms and conditions and titles are very different too. Etc… there are so many differences between properties in the US and Germany, this list could go on and on…

[@naraseth]

Funny to see the German house market from another pespective. The last house was really a weird one, even from a German perspective. What might be interesting to consider when looking at prices in rural areas is that rural in Germany and in the US mean two very different things. Bc Germany is much smaller with way more inhabitants per km² living in a rural area still means that the next big city isn't very far away. There are also grocery stores, schools and doctors reachable by foot or in very rural areas by car/bus in under 10-15 minutes. It's more comparable to the suburbs in the US. Thanks for your content, it's really entertaining and I love to see American-German content without talking one or the other country down.

[@junkfoodvegan6198]

There are a lot of newer houses in Germany... well I'd guess a lot of the houses from before the 50's might have been destroyed in a particular event, I'd you know what I mean 😉

[@matthiasnieuwenhuisen7181]

18:54 It's the utility room and the red thing is the heating. Probably in the basement or partially underground.

[@fariesz6786]

okay so i haven't seen anyone state this: heat pumps are *not* inefficient! the exact opposite actually, they have efficiencies over 100% bc they only use energy to _move_ the thermal energy that already exists instead of transforming some pristine form of energy into heat. the downside they have is that they may not work if temps drop below.. i think it was -20ish°C (which i think is -4ish°F?) for which you need a backup like gas heating. also, they don't just look like ACs, they are the same goddamn thing but for some reason only very few manufacturers will produce them with the ability to switch around the direction of the heat flow (even though that is getting more attractive in Germany and is _definitely_ attractive in the US Midwest - see the video from Technology Connections about heatpumps) and geothermal pumps are also the same technology, just with one side exposed to a warm part of the earth instead of the outside air (and no, not the core or the earth, not even close.. iirc 50~100metres are completely sufficient to get a significant amount of warmth in some areas)

[@taukakao]

The last house was the weirdest thing. I've never seen marble stairs in Germany, I don't know who would build that xD

[@Fenster134]

Hm... I saw that pretty often here in our region im Schwabenländle. Especially in houses built in the 50s I guess.

[@mats7492]

pretty common houses from the 1960s and 70s..

[@KatieLeary]

The room with the dolls was pretty creepy too. And all the rooms were simultaneously cluttered but didn't have much in it.

[@mats7492]

Looks like an old ladies house..@@KatieLeary

[@biancaj.d.148]

Marburg is a small town, BUT it has an university, really nice infrastructure and it belongs to the Frankfurt am Main area... People are working in Frankfurt and travelling by train to live in Marburg... There is a beautiful little river to Swim in the sommer, a castle, a really beautifull old inner city and a lot of history... I would estimate that Marburg belongs to the pricier countrysides in Germany. While Biedenkopf (20km away) or Weimar Lahn (10km?) are waaaaaay cheaper, due to way less infrastructure and even smaller villages...

[@alwynemcintyre2184]

In Australia most new houses are pretty big on small blocks, usually 4 bedrooms with 2 car garage. From the rear of the house to the boundary fence is about 10 feet, same at the front, sides of the house to the boundary fences is 3 feet.

[@valitsenimimerkki]

the second house was for a new house not yet built. On top of the price you need to a lot of money for tiles, wooden floors, kitchen, heating etc...a trick of builders. Seems cheap but comes with only walls.

[@KicKandRoll666]

the second house you are looking at, looks so nice because it is only a marketing prospect how a buidl hous can be like. it does not come furnished, it is not even build, they wanna give you a contract to build a house like that. Costs always explode while building and not only does it not come furnished but for everyting you have to probaly pay extra, like having a real floor and not just some raw concrete. if someone really wanna get a useable house with everythign expect furnishing (and kitchen, they are always seperate in germany), i expect the cost to be 50% higher

[@yvi2335]

If you buy or build a house in germany and if you care about it, you know that minimum the next 3 genertations of your family can live in, its a investment for minimum 100 years, if you do it right. And be carefull, we have two frankfurts in germany :D one at the Main river and one at the Oder river this was the one at the Oder 😊

[@kingofmontechristo]

Compared to American homes, German houses may be considered less aesthetically appealing, typically smaller with less open space, smaller yards and garages. They tend to come with a higher price tag, despite the potentially higher income in the US. However, they are known for their efficiency and durability. Each person must make their own judgment about what matters most to them. It's worth noting that Germans often cope with the situation through saying that German houses can withstand tornadoes while American houses can't. 😄

[@wolfgangpreier9160]

Thats a easy one. There are no tornadoes in Germany...

[@kingofmontechristo]

​@@wolfgangpreier9160 you are a very smart person. Avoid mentioning that loudly in Germany, or you may find people countering with arguments like, "but the US experiences school shootings and lacks healthcare," instead of acknowledging that American homes are much better suited for raising a family, despite their shorter lifespan.

[@Engy_Wuck]

@@wolfgangpreier9160that's an old myth. There are tornadoes, quite a few of them even. To mitiate the effect of everyone having a smartphone these days (and therefore better documentation) have a look at "Tornadoes in Germany" from "Atmospheric Research" Volume 56, January 2001. They found 517 reported tornadoes in germany up to the year 2000 and indications that maybe one third werde reported. The main difference to the US: the highest reported ones were F4 category, but F5 are rare even in the US.

[@wolfgangpreier9160]

@@kingofmontechristo "acknowledging that American homes are much better suited for raising a family" yes, true. American houses are made of wood and their windows do not open and their doors do not close. They are mode for about 100 years. American houses are much cheaper and can be rebuilt much faster when the tornadoes hit. Much better than the german homes which are made of brick or concrete, sometimes with the help of some massive wooden beams, have windows to be opened, no HVAC which induces asthma and permanent sniffles and where the doors must be opened manually. They are made for about 1000 years. German houses are rarely being rebuilt because there are no earthquakes, termites, floods or tornadoes in Germany. And only few cockroaches or rats. I must admit rats were a problem in medieval times when there was no canalization. But the've learned in the last 500 years.

[@mindscraper1978]

The US American is blinding in this one, first thought when seeing the yards is "cut everything natural/unique down".

[@strenter]

I was born 1967. The house I live in is the house my parents and grandparents built in 1966. It is MY house now. I probably won't ever move out on my own.

[@IamnotfromUSA]

Just so you know Me and my brother at age of 10 and 8 where jumping from 2nd floor height into 1 meter of snow we also climbed trees around 4 to 5 meters height also but that is absolutly safe for children our grip strength was better then.

[@JohnDoe-us5rq]

A absolute pro with having all those doors is when frying food the smell stays in the kitchen 😃

[@tubekulose]

"Haus" isn't pronounced "hoss" but "house" and "Zimmer" is pronounced "tsimmer".(German "z" = "ts"-sound). "Marburg" (as everything with "-burg") isn't "Mar-börg" but "Mar-bourg". Maybe you'll read it this time.

[@ursschnatterfleck6019]

Chill mal deine base! 😉

[@vuhdoo7486]

Marburg is not a small town, it's an expensive university city. Small towns would be ~10k citizen, and small places ("Dörfer") have ~1k-5k citizen.

[@voyance4elle]

I laughed so hard I understood "This room looks terrifying, haunted... drugs are beautiful! " 😂😂😂

[@juliaclaire42]

Nobody would spray weedkiller on the driveway of the Marburg house. It's all on purpose. This are special stones which are designed to let grass grow in between them. It's not desirable to seal too much of you driveway - the rain has to stay on your own grounds or the city will charge you an extra fee for using the public drains.

[@laurafelicis1895]

An hour ago, you couldn't have told me that this video concept would be this interesting to me. But I loved every minute haha I just love looking at houses!

[@whisped8145]

19:55 Those are artificially furnitured rooms by lunatic photographs to have pictures for this sale, so the rooms aren't empty and you can get a better sense of size.

[@friendlyreptile9931]

81k residents is not a small town for german standards :D

[@regfin6855]

A lot of us Germans like plants and bushes to grow to have some privacy. So these bushes don't necessarily have to be trimmed...

[@redshirt49]

Housing prices have exploded somewhat in recent years, yeah. In most cases, it is cheaper to build than to buy. Presuming you can get a decent location. Which can be hard in cities.

[@hobbyracer2814]

a population of 80k in a town or city may not be much for you, but for someone who was born on an island with it's biggest town having a population of 14k it is alot

[@MerYeM-gc5me]

thank you for yet another good video 😊 for buying a house here in germany you basically also always can add ~10% of the price on top for different fees. This of course always depends on different factors but it's a little rule of thumb. Berlin is also one of the most expensive areas. Just like every major city in many many countries at the moment

[@Psi-Storm]

Berlin probably doesn't even make the top 5 of most expensive cities. Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt are definitely more expensive. And then we have Cologne, Düsseldorf or even smaller ones like Heidelberg that are really expensive.

[@d-i-wood8499]

And keep in mind that the furniture is almost never included. The kitchen is not included either. Sometimes you can buy it from the owner (additional costs), sometimes you have to buy a new one.

[@klarasee806]

Berlin - if not Tiergarten or Zehlendorf or the like - is not that expensive compared to a lot of other German regions. Although Tiergarten belongs to the most expensive areas in Germany, it‘s way easier to find a reasonable priced home somewhere in Berlin than somewhere in Munich or Hamburg.

[@whisped8145]

14:40 We don't use weed-killers for that. That's illegal. We either pluck it all out manually, or use a flamethrower.

[@stuborn-complaining-german]

For reference take a look at some houses in the Munich or Hamburg area.

[@mairywo]

That house in Marburg for 379'000 Euros would probably be around 700'000-900'000 Swiss Francs in Switzerland in the region where I live. I WISH I could find any house here for less than 700'000 Swiss Francs (that's 780'000$). Most houses on sites like this list the starting price, so whoever pays the most gets the house.

[@GeschichtenUndGedanken]

Right. It depends on where and why. At the moment you would need to invest a lot. Just don’t rush it too much. “Furnished” means you will have into consideration that some houses will rip a hole into your pockets and things like that will make you think “why didn’t we think about it later. Are there schools for the kids, will you rent it as a kind of investment, how are you planning to go to your job, are there opportunities to work out? Things like that. Real estate agents will point out the benefits and have a tendency to overdo it “a little” . And yes, people are looking for a home and most of them won’t want to be the founder of a place they possibly could name: „Drive Trough-Bed & Breakfast. All bucks included!“

[@JoSchn]

13:29 Marburg is a so called Student City. There is a Castle (Burg) on top of a Hill, the landcape is wonderfull. Very high living quality compared to Berlin / Hamburg / Cologne. Nice Landscape!

[@chrisb2942]

The 2nd was just an advertisement and don't look at the price. You most likely would've needed to buy the property on top of it as well as the furnishing like kitchen, bathrooms, floors, stairs all on top. Not to speak the garden, patio, garage.. then you most likely need furniture too. Around 1 to 1.2 million would be a good price for it, I assume.

[@McGhinch]

The house in Marburg: applying the same construction standards, how much would it cost in the US?

[@blacksilver4711]

Hallo Ryan,ich bin ein echter Berliner Junge (50 jahre alt) ich sehe mir deine Videos erst seit kurzer Zeit an, denke aber das ich jetzt alle gehen habe.Deine ehrliche Art und weise,sowie den vergleich Amerika und Deutschland, finde ich beeindruckend( dieses Wort ist mal wieder Typisch deutsch) umschreibt aber auch das was ich meine.Als wirklich Typisch Deutscher, könnte ich jetzt ewig schreiben, aber ich versuche es tatsächlich mal "kurz und knapp" Alle Videos über Deutschland sind fast authentisch, oft ganz nah dran,wie wir sind. Um uns zu begreifen oder zu verstehen muss man uns besuchen, mal tatsächlich ein paar Tage mit einem Deutschen den Tag verbringen. Denn letztendlich sind auch wir Deutschen sehr verschieden, aber doch irgendwie gleich. Ich bin fest davon überzeugt, das du ein guter Deutscher Amerikaner werden würdest ,und uns so zeigst wie wie Du uns tatsächlich siehst, denke ich, das unser Image durch solche Amerikaner wie du es bist, sehr schnell ins Positive gehoben werden könnte 🙂 . Dankeschön für deine Videos. Wir halten dir immer ein Bett frei 🙂