[hsn915]

I assume by 'depreciation' you mean prices fall down or don't go up?

Yea, why is that a bad thing? If house prices keep going up it just makes it impossible for young people to start families. Why would anyone want that?

Treating homes as investment kills the social fabric.

That said, houses in Tokyo are quite expensive. Try looking online (like on suumo or sumaiti or lifull homes websites) and you will see that a house for a family with 2 kids costs upwards of half a million dollars. Which I think is insane.

Houses on the country side are much cheaper (half that price or less).

[Sebb767]

> a house for a family with 2 kids costs upwards of half a million dollars. Which I think is insane.

That's a steal, globally seen. I live in a mid-size city in Germany (500k people) and for a house at the city border you can easily calculate a million euros. And that's for the small ones that need restoration from the ground up. Let's not even get started on larger cities like Munich or Frankfurt.

EDIT: Why the downvotes? While these houses might be expensive in absolute terms, they are pretty cheap for such a large Metropole.

[clavicat]

>If house prices keep going up it just makes it impossible for young people to start families. Why would anyone want that?

Because everyone wants to be a landed aristocrat sitting on a patch of land that effortlessly accumulates value.

[presentation]

Totally agree, the prices in Tokyo for homes are competitive with tiny low opportunity cities in the USA.

[WillPostForFood]

What's an example of a tiny low opportunity city in the US? The median home price in the US is ~$250,000 (under 200k in 16 states), and you'd expect it to be on the lower in tiny low opportunity areas.

[hsn915]

Why would someone in Tokyo care about the cost in Germany?

In practical terms it means a family with 2 kids needs both parents working fulltime to pay the bills and save some money.

If only one parent works, they better have a really good paying job, or be content with not being able to save any money.

[bart_spoon]

> That said, houses in Tokyo are quite expensive. Try looking online (like on suumo or sumaiti or lifull homes websites) and you will see that a house for a family with 2 kids costs upwards of half a million dollars. Which I think is insane.

This is absurdly cheap compared to cities around the world, including in the US.