> Jokes aside, why the prices are so high in some countries? This is localized to specific cities, not the entire country. (Though country-wide home prices are

> Jokes aside, why the prices are so high in some countries? This is localized to specific cities, not the entire country. (Though country-wide home prices are also up, just not into the millions like this). The reason is that people want to live in these specific places, but they can't build upward fast enough to hold everyone who wants to move in. So instead, new buyers compete over the same housing inventory and the current residents never want to sell because they're afraid they may never be able to buy back into the city in the future. Seattle does have some major problems right now, but it's not literally a lawless wasteland. I think most of us believe that the city will get on top of the social issues eventually, at which point it becomes even more attractive to live in Seattle and the prices go up even more.