[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.