I changed the permissions all the way up the tree of my user directory as a test, but it didn't help...  I'm absolutely sure there are no typos in the path.

In that case it could be restricted access due to some SELinux or AppArmor configuration (the latter is likely if the box is running a newer SUSE Linux).  It's hard to tell, though, as you haven't told us anything about the platform this is...  (Update: Sorry, I overlooked the OSX in your reply...)