About half of Vienna's 2 million residents live in social housing. Average social housing rents are about $700 for a large one-bedroom apartment, says Gerald Kössl, researcher at the Austrian Federation of Limited-Profit Housing Associations. Schublach pays more for his four-bedroom — with utilities, it's around $1,700 per month. "Which is not 'cheap, cheap,' but it's definitely affordable," he says.

We need this in the USA. In the Bay Area, a three bedroom apartment is more than twice this.