[dagw]

I guess it must be a cultural thing. In major cities in Sweden 15% over the asking price is the asking price and 50% over the asking price, while rare, is hardly unheard of. No seller ever accepts the asking price unless they're really desperate.

[thriftwy]

I've read that in Sweden, participation of recent immigrants in economy is lower than in most other European countries.

Why not create some jobs for them at building new homes and propping price down? Genuine question.

[dagw]

You can't build houses without land to build on, and desirable land makes up most of the price of desirable housing.

[thriftwy]

I don't think of Sweden as a country that lacks land.

Population of Sweden is comparable to that of Bay Area but seriously.

I imagine if you could just go and buy a home in "the next suburb by the road" really affordably, it would deflate prices for most desirable places too.

[dagw]

If you could just get plenty of cheap land in the suburb down the road someone would have built houses there 30 years ago.

Sure there is land and there are plenty of places where you can buy a nice house for less than, say, $100k. However none of those places are within a one hour commute of where any jobs are.

[thriftwy]

Well, I'm looking at map of Sweden near Stockholm and sure as hell I see a lot of place for building up. Glades with direct access to highway.

[dagw]

And you think that the reason they haven't built on that land is lack of cheap labor? Labor costs are simply not a factor when it comes to the economics of building houses in and around places like Stockholm.