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I have a hunch it's the same with Japan (part 1 of this). House prices in attractive areas (in and around Tokyo) have increased drastically over the last few y

I have a hunch it's the same with Japan (part 1 of this). House prices in attractive areas (in and around Tokyo) have increased drastically over the last few years. Meanwhile, houses in the countryside are on the market for almost (and often literally) nothing. I guess the question is what the data is actually measuring. would still expect the graphs to show an increase if they measure the price of actually sold property. Just checked OECD data and to me it looks like prices are rising in similar ways in Germany and the US since 2015. Japan does in fact seem less steep but it's still rising, not flat as the graphs on TFA would suggest: https://data.oecd.org/chart/6ztU https://data.oecd.org/chart/6ztU

forgotmyoldname 5y ago
Just looking around my town, new houses in Japan are also dramatically larger and higher quality than older ones. Older homes were one floor with single pane windows and basically single plane plywood walls. New ones have double paned windows, 2-3 floors, and some degree of insulation in the walls. I’m not sure if that’s the sole factor driving price increases, but I imagine it’s one thing. Houses are generally treated as something to rebuild every 20-40 years here. But I could see newer homes being a buy once, keep your whole life deal.