But it is not all doom and gloom in Greece

Having written about the cost of living and sounding pessimistic, it would be wrong to say that it is impossible to find a bargain property in Greece. My experience is that you will not find this through estate agents or the Internet - at least I haven't and I have done a lot of searching for somewhere small for myself outside the city.

My answer is you simply have to come to Greece and look around. If you are seriously thinking of living here then you are probably doing so because you have visited or do visit Greece and have fallen in love with the country.A close friend of mine here in Thessaloniki did just that. She fulfilled her dream of a little house in a village not so far away from the city where she could spend week-ends both summer and winter. How did she manage it?
She simply took walks around a number of villages she liked and asked the locals if anything was up for sale. Bingo! For Euro 50 000 which is about $70 000, she purchased an old stone house on the village street which did not need much renovation. But, as I said, you won't find these in the estate agent's window or on the Internet. Unless of course money is no object and a villa on the island of Mykonos for $4,5 million is not going to put you out of pocket!