Quote Originally Posted by UhOhXplode View Post
$200 USD per month? That's just fun money. Are prices that much lower in Ukraine? I don't think they are much lower in Russia because we were looking at ads for houses with indoor pools and the prices were about the same in the US and Moscow. People need a lot more than $200 to live on.
Well maybe you looked at properties marketed at foreigners? I was travelling in that region, and I realised after a while that anything that's translated into English essentially means there is an added 1/3 or sometimes more, to the price, seriously. Or anything that's aimed at Westerners too, or rich locals or Russians. I certainly wasn't looking for villas with a swimmingpool!

I wouldn't presume to know this, but I think there are some VERY cheap flats for rent in the ex USSR area. Some people bought their flats for next to nothing and are now living in properties they own but have no mortgage on. So that's great for for them, and their budget. I met a few people in Belarus who told me that they were living on 800-1000 a month (and were unhappy about it). But there, a lot of things are state subsidized and they wouldn't pay the "real" price for it. Don't think that happens in Ukraine. Just listening to all the discussions about gas price in Ukraine, I am getting the impression that it is make or break for a large part of the population. In the UK they just practically doubled the gas price a while back, but it only affected the very poor seriously. Everybody else could absorb the difference.

I think a lot of people in Ukraine are living very much on the brink of poverty and the it's not easy for many to get a good stable job. You might have hoped that 22 years AFTER the USSR, people would be better off, not worse, but I think for many the situation is quite the opposite and they really have a very dire situation. I read that many millions of Ukrainians are working in Russia because they simply can't get a half decently paying job in the Ukraine. I can't even imagine, how hard that would be.