Real estate prices in Texas crazy cheap?

[rachel83az]

In most European countries, buying an apartment is quite simple, and you don't have an HOA molesting you with unreasonable fees or special assessments.

In Italy, it's pretty variable, too. I know Italians who pay like 25€ per month. Most of the ones I'm aware of are paying 25-100€. A handful are being overcharged a few hundred euros per month. Buuuut... the super cheap ones aren't really taking care of the building properly. I personally know one building where the owners were pleased that they were able to get monthly fees cut roughly in half. But the roof wasn't taken care of/inspected as it should have been. A big storm rolled in, caused massive damage/leaking. Not only did the residents on the top floor have to deal with massive water damage, every apartment in the building had to pay (IIRC) 3000-4000€ suddenly out of pocket to pay for a new roof. Italy is one of the few countries with no state-mandated minimum wage, so 3000€ may have been a couple of months' wages for some of those people. With a slightly higher monthly fee, they wouldn't have had to pay so much out of pocket at once.

So the situation isn't completely unique to the US, but it is more common there.