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by cracker_jacks 1806 days ago
When you make housing an investment, by definition, it has to become less affordable in the future.

Until a country decides to stop making policy to support this notion that a basic need should be an appreciating asset and not a depreciating one like food, transportation, etc, this completely unsurprising trend will continue. It is a strange world we live in where we collectively believe that a basic need should appreciate in value over time.
5 comments
Dylan16807 1806 days ago
> When you make housing an investment, by definition, it has to become less affordable in the future.

It doesn't have to. Even if it just matches inflation you could call it an investment. If it keeps up with wage growth, that's a pretty good investment that doesn't force it to become less affordable. Or it could be somewhere in between, and then housing would be a reasonable investment and increasingly affordable over time.

The issue isn't that it's an investment at all, it's that it's much too good of an investment for multiple reasons.

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ehnto 1806 days ago
For bonus points, make sure people outside of the local economy can buy and influence the cost of housing, making certain that the cost becomes completely decoupled from supply and demand of the community who are supposed to live in them.
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redm 1806 days ago
The population is growing over time, so housing and land appreciate because demand and scarcity increase.

From 180m in 1960 to 329m today. [1]

[1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=U...

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wernercd 1806 days ago
Its not just the investment side - although that's part...

When the government throws tons of money at it? Housing is funded by a lot of government money for "affordable housing" and the like.

As with ANYTHING the government throws money at? Supply goes down and prices go up. For other references on increased price, worse results? Look at school, daycare, health insurance... amazing how bad government help screws everything up.

"basic need" supply and demand... when there's only x amount and there are x+more wanting it? the price will go up... either you increase the supply or decrease the demand.

It's a strange world we live in where people think labeling things as anything removes the supply/demand dynamic and the ability of the government to screw things up "in the name of the good"

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adamnemecek 1806 days ago
Same with mortgages. They increase the price over time.
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