Priced out of buying a home in New York City, one American family did something most people only daydream about. They moved to Italy and bought a house for about $13,000. Cassandra Tresl, her husband Alex Ninman, and their young daughter left New York for a small town in Italy’s Abruzzo region. That was a few years ago. They say they’d make the same call again.
The math in New York just didn’t work. Tresl, now 33, told CNBC that after their daughter arrived in 2020, buying a place in the city seemed impossible. They were paying $2,000 a month in rent, which is actually cheap for New York. Even so, they couldn’t picture saving for a down payment. In a city where the average homeowner is pushing 60, they weren’t alone in that.
So they rethought the whole plan. Like a lot of Americans, they’d grown up with the idea that success meant always upgrading: a bigger place, a newer car, a busier calendar. At some point, they started asking whether any of that was actually making them happier. What they wanted instead was more time, more flexibility, and a stronger sense of community. Italy, it turned out, could offer that for a fraction of the price.
In 2022, they bought a house in a small Abruzzo town for around 11,500 euros, or roughly $13,000, paying in cash. They made the move permanent in 2023. Buying outright meant no mortgage and no monthly rent, which Tresl described as a huge relief. The house itself, and the money math behind the whole move, is where the story gets interesting.
What $13,000 Actually Bought Them
The house is more than a fixer-upper shell. For their roughly $13,000, they got a two-story, two-bedroom home just over 1,000 square feet, with a third bedroom in the basement and an attic on top. Paying cash for it meant they owned it free and clear. No mortgage, no rent, and none of the financial weight that usually comes with buying a home in the States.
The full picture involves a bit more spending and a second property. The family says they later put around $17,000 into renovations. The priciest single job was about $3,000 to replumb the house. They also bought a second place for roughly $20,000, fixed it up, and now rent it out, which Ninman manages for around $1,100 a month. Daily costs like food and childcare run lower than in New York, too. The result is a budget with a lot more slack than the one they left.
The Life They Traded For
The payoff, the way Tresl tells it, is mostly about time and connection. She left her old remote tech job. Now she does marketing for an Italian travel company, and she earns less than she used to. “My time is much better spent,” she says. In their town, neighbors stop to talk, and friends drop by without calling first. Summers spill out into the piazza, with kids running around and festivals filling the calendar.
It isn’t a fairy tale, and Tresl doesn’t pretend it is. The family misses relatives and friends back home. Italian bureaucracy tests their patience, with simple errands turning into stacks of paperwork and repeat visits. She once had to hand over a copy of her health insurance card just to set up home internet. Still, she says the tradeoff has been worth it, and she can’t picture moving back anytime soon. For a family that decided the endless chase wasn’t making them happier, a small house in Abruzzo turned out to be plenty.