Episode 146 was a real eye opener with all the talk of apartment sizes
and costs. When listening to this episode one has to remember that it
was recorded in June 2008 which was during a major financial melt down
in the United States and eventually world-wide. The cost of the
property the guest spoke of (I think she said $900K) would today
(December 31, 2011) be at best 1/3 of the number she stated. One also
has to realize that the guest’s former area of West Los Angeles is one
of the ritzier areas of Los Angeles and certainly does not represent
all of California. We do have space and snow blowers in
California. :)  I moved from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Both of the
homes I owned were 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and two living rooms at
about 2000 sqft or 186 sqm on a 6000 sqft lot. The house in Las Vegas
has an RV area and an outdoor hot tub.
I recently moved into a one bedroom apartment to try to save some
money for my eventual move to Paris and this place feels a little
cramped to me. It is 680 sqft or 68 sqm so when Katia said she had a
reeeeeeelly nice size place at 840 sqft / 78 sqm OUTSIDE of the city
proper I nearly fell off my 8 person couch and into my 65 in (419 cm)
television. (Yeah, I know. I won’t be bringing THOSE with me. LOL The
paring down has already drastically begun.)
I did have a smaller place when I lived in Wiesbaden, Germany but
there were two of us at the time. It was a studio, one big room
actually, so the couch was right next to the bed so when guests came
over it was their chose where to sit.  :)
Thank you for all the good information and the heads up like how flats
are not generally cleaned when you move in and how often there are no
appliances or even cabinetry in the kitchen. I learned a lot of that
as well from David Lebovitz’s book “The Sweet Life In Paris” and like
David, a nice kitchen will need to be the main point in my residence.
The information about long term rentals and agencies was also very
useful.
The thing that wasn't really covered is how much do these apartments
cost monthly. I guess that really doesn't matter as cost of living
differs worldwide so the cost of the apartment would have to be
discussed in tandem with the average salary. I wonder if there is a
website which lists 'average' rent prices throughout the city. One
would be able to locate the pricey parts of town that way. I did find
this website http://www.parisnet.com/parismap.html which has basic
descriptions of each of the Arrondissements but it just basically says
the 16th is widely regarded as the neighborhood for the wealthy or the
20th is slowly becoming yuppified due to its affordable prices.
I guess living in a small place is the price to pay for living in the
heart of one of the most amazing cities.