delusional

Last night I went outside at 2 AM and when I stepped out of our tiny elevator that often breaks down I was surprised to see my neighbor and her daughter in the hallway talking. Why were they out there? It's because their apartment is so small, there's no place for them to talk. 

I have a post here where I talk about the problems caused by the tiny apartments. Kids have no room to play and have to set up and take down their puzzles and legos. They get into fights because they are all playing on 1 square meter of space. There's no room for either sleepover guests or large families for dinner. Family can't come and stay with you even if you own a $800,000 apartment. 

How much do you have to spend for a house that's barely large enough for sleepover guests? In Beit Shemesh, which is a 1 hour commute to jobs in Jerusalem and more than that to Tel Aviv and 45 minutes from a hospital, you need to spend $1.6 million, that's dollars. In the local currency it's 5,555,000. 

But you better arrive here with that money because mortgages require a 40% down payment and your salary will be 1/3 of what it was in America and that's if you speak Hebrew and can find a job,.

For that you'll get a 4-5 bedroom attached house with a moderate sized kitchen and a living room/dining room with no walls between them. There's no den, no play room. The bedrooms are small. Yard is small. 

Here, the house to the right of the red line.

Your living room/dining room:

Here's the dining room part from a different angle

Kitchen:

Master bedroom.

Yard:

These are reasonable living accommodations but I remind you that the cost is $1.6 million, dollars that is. 

Where do you put your guests? In North America I often stayed over in people's furnished basements, in my own private guest area. They don't have that here. The guest will be on top of you really. You can't host a whole family but maybe a couple with a baby. They'll be sitting in your living room when they leave their tiny bedroom. 

This is madness. You have to be a crazy person to pay $1.6 million for this. Talk about materialism. It's comical when olim judge chutzniks for being materialistic when the oleh moves into a $1.6 million dollar house in Israel and the chutznik lives in a $200,000 house in Oak Park.

I say that people who make aliyah are crazy people. They are genuinely delusional. To understand them watch this video: