Everyone I talk to in Motovun wishes to leave the hilltown. In most cases the wish is of a burning kind. As soon as possible! In a few cases people can wait for a few years, but not more than a few. This includes the so-called locals, too. The usual reasons are predictable. To begin with, Motovun is dead half a year. The first three months of the year are particularly difficult to live through. On top of that, most people who are still around are not very pleasant to be with. Some are outright horrible, and there are many stories about neighbors from hell. But the usual reasons for staying are even more predictable. The real estate market is completely dead. In order to move someplace else, people need to sell their houses or apartments at a price that is pretty far fetched at the moment. Those rich enough to leave without selling their property first are long gone. What is worse, most people realize that the real estate market is unlikely to change in the coming years. Feeling stuck, everyone I talk to is even more annoyed with the hilltown than ever before. Their flight from Motovun is turning into a mere dream.

Addendum (November 1, 2016)

Croatia’s accession to the European Union was a great hope for many people selling their houses in Motovun. To their surprise, the fateful date came and went without any changes in the real estate market. A bit more than three years after the accession, it is moribund still. Amazingly, though, the prices of properties on sale remain unchanged to this day. Which goes a long way toward explaining the doldrums, it goes without saying. The prices would need to be slashed for the market to start moving once again. In my estimate, they should be between a third and a half of the going prices, for this is where they were before the onset of the real estate boom that ended with a resounding crash in 2008. But try saying any of this to the hopeful sellers of houses in these parts. They would take it as a personal offense, no less. Come to think of it, they would be right, too.