After thirty years of house prices rising astronomically, you can't appeal to "speculation" any more. People are speculating because the underlying scarcity makes prices sure to rise.

I think if you look closely at "population down, house prices up" you will find normal supply-and-demand stories like "population down, houses down even more" or "population down (downtown), prices up (suburbs)".

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JKCalhoun 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Agree.

So often I see people complaining "people treat their home as an investment…". Because in fact it turns out it is?

Are we supposed to pass laws that fix the price of a home based on the square footage?

(I wonder if jewelers complain that the reason silver is so expensive is that people treat it as an investment.)

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ironman1478 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Nobody advocates for fixing the price. People want more supply which will bring the cost of housing as a whole down or at least provide more price diversity.

Is it even beneficial to have a house worth a lot of money? Think about places where property is expensive, it is also expensive to live there in general because housing costs so much. The cost of housing means employers have to pay their employees a lot to keep them there. This in turn means you are paying more for goods and services. If you're a homeowner, but NOT a high income person, this is very bad. It means you can't make payments towards maintenance of your house, going out becomes harder, etc. Your quality of life decreases.

People who inherit homes that are worth a lot, but aren't flush with cash end up having to sell frequently because there is no way for them to maintain it. It's also the plot of white lotus season 2 with the villas lol.

	▲	inigyou 40 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Expensive housing means expensive commercial rent too, which means high prices and less quirky niche shops. In Berlin I've watched them disappear and get replaced by a McDonalds or a cryptocurrency startup firm.

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cliglot an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

> I wonder if jewelers complain that the reason silver is so expensive is that people treat it as an investment.

Probably not since silver is not a basic need nor even a luxury that affords you independence.