in Japan, the houses really are affordable because of population decline.

Isn’t that mostly in the rural areas only though? Because the old people are dying off and the younger ones are leaving to move to the cities.

Guilty. I got my condo at 43.

I'm only able to afford it because I took a huge gamble in March 2020, borrowed from my Roth 401k at work, and put a few thousand bucks in oil stocks which I was able to hold onto for a couple of years because I didn't have any emergencies.

It wasn't fuck you money, but it was life changing. Paid off my student loans and put the rest into a down payment on my home.

From what I read it's across the board. Every western democratic state: unaffordable housing. It's too eerie. It's like these nations move lockstep into the exact same issues. Yet for one class it's not an issue at all. If you own property you're wealthier than ever before. Don't own though? You'll never own.

I think it's market manipulation from software companies. I'm too lazy to write about it now, but where a market seemingly looks 'free' (different 'markets' in different nations with many vendors) they're all using the same software. Computer says nudge the price up a bit here and there... eventually every house is worth a million plus, regardless of what western nation you visit. Cory's written about software's impact on labour markets. Same ideas. Go read him if you want.

A good example is perhaps airbnb: pushed housing costs up globally and it very quickly became problematic.

I think history will not be kind to today's governments. Software companies run amok and just fuck up everything for everyone but a very small number of people.

Meanwhile in China...