4 ms·
And perhaps the most important difference from the American economy: Housing is viewed as a disposable commodity, with an approximately 30 year shelf-life and
by knuththetruth 8y ago
And perhaps the most important difference from the American economy:
Housing is viewed as a disposable commodity, with an approximately 30 year shelf-life and depreciating value. Land in Japan does hold its value, but (at least post-bubble) at nowhere near the level of insane, speculative fluctuations driven by US-style “financialization.” Land values mostly track with inflation, like they did in the US before housing became an investment vehicle for Global Capital.
- clairity 8y agoyes, it's unfortunate that we lose sight of the main purpose of a home: to be a safe place to live and commune with others, not a cold financial instrument. when you think about how housing prices should change, you'd expect it to correlate with a macroeconomic growth measure like gdp or inflation. if it doesn't, then you'd probably first expect something obvious like (1) many people are looking for homes (high demand) (2) people are fighting fiercely for prized urban properties (focused demand/limited supply) (3) we've run out of land/homes (short supply) but rather, it's excess capital chasing excess returns, to accumulate more excess capital, with no thought to the underlying asset.