[yxhuvud]

But it don't have to take a depression to create sinking house prices. In Sweden we had shrinking house prices between 1931 to 1981, with only three years (right after the war) when prices increased. The same period is the most economically successful period we ever had.

Why? Because politicians built a shitton of houses (and tore down a lot of crappy housing too). Nowadays people here too think prices always go up, not realizing it is a political choice. It may very well be the right choice, but so many doesn't even understand it is a choice in the first place.

[njepa]

Right, but similar interventions are also completely unthinkable today. Which is why Stockholm have some of the most expensive property in Europe.