Friend M. Wells

An interesting theme lately in the American expat community in Western Europe, especially higher earning corporate types (e.g. €200-300K/year), is the feeling of being unable to move back home to the US. Few reasons... Many who moved in the years after COVID sold their homes when rates were closer to zero than the rates now. Now that same home is ~20% more expensive while mortgage rates are 2x higher. So the monthly cost of housing like-for-like went up literally 100% in just 3-5 years. They've gotten used to the European way of life (e.g. no or maybe just one car, easy train and airport access) and its far less intense commercial and career culture... so fewer working hours and more vacations and significant employee protections (i.e. hard to be fired legally). This is great while living in Europe... a €250K household income is massive even post-tax considering the low relative cost of health care, education, transport, housing, etc... ...but dropping themselves back into US society... especially in a major metro area like NY, SF, Chicago, even Miami now... at age 40-50 with kids... is largely impractical. Many Europeans would be shocked to learn that ~$250K/year in the US is incomparable to that same level of earnings in a major Western European city like London or Amsterdam or Paris. I'd estimate the income needed in the US to match the overall quality of life you'd enjoy in one of those European cities... is around $500-750K/year. Wild.