As an American who lived in southwest Spain for a year, I can say that the market down there is garbage, and that your clients will be friendlier and respect your skills more elsewhere. I left with enough personal and secondhand knowledge of bad experiences working in the area that I would never work for any Spanish or Portugese company. I know Americans there that love it but have a strict rule against doing local work.

The good news is that's still a wonderful place to live, and just about everywhere else pays rates that let you live the good life down there. Work your github, work your twitter, work your blog, and get remote work. If you're good, or even mediocre and professional, there's tremendous demand for programming talent.

You're not crazy. Your area is screwy.