I live in such a city here in Norway. There are many reasons, but here are some: - Decades long centralizing policies, which have effectively removed gov / st

I live in such a city here in Norway. There are many reasons, but here are some: - Decades long centralizing policies, which have effectively removed gov / state jobs from more rural areas and districts, and centralized them to a select few larger towns. Lots of smaller towns and areas are dying, while everyone's emigrating to the same cities. - Explosion on college education. Our local University has a 10%-15% growth rate, every year. Students in turn need to live somewhere, and there aren't being built nearly enough student housing / dorms. - More tourism; We've had a boom in tourism, especially among Asian tourists. This has lead to expansions of hotels, and more people renting out their apartments etc. to airbnb - Other economic growth in private industries, which means more workers - Construction workers that need places to stay - we have thousands of construction workers coming here every year, none of them which own - or plan to own - housing themselves. When I moved here, rent was around $400 for a small studio apartment. 10 years later, the same studio apartment is rented out for $1200...it's grotesque. The lucky people are either those who's owned units since the 80s, or those that bought right after the last recession. I know so many people that have made hundreds of thousands, just because they bought at the right time - no renovations needed. Edit: Just to give an example; In the city where I now live, a decent house will cost you around $600k-$700k. A "starter" apartment will cost you minimum $180k-$200k. If you drive 1 hour away, the prices will be cut in half. If you move 1-2 hr flight time away, you'll probably pay 20% of those prices. And we have 15% down-payment here in Norway! Lots of young people will spend a solid 3-5 years just saving up for the down-payment. One "life-hack" among fresh grads is to simply move somewhere rural if you can get a relevant job, save aggressively for a couple of years, and then move back to the city.