[copenja]

Check out 'Exhibit 4' in report linked from the article: https://archive.md/DRUiI.

It shows that in the USA "net worth relative to nominal GDP" is actually pretty stable. The US has the lowest multiple of all the countries under analysis. Indeed the graph shows the US being almost exactly at the historical average.

I'm not sure what this means, but I certainly found it surprising.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

This is what I find interesting. No one seems to complain about house prices more than people in the US - and yet on average - housing relative to rents & wages is much more affordable in the US than almost every other country in the world.

[kazinator]

Could that because of of the USA's slums dragging down the average?

Say that your income is at the 0.75 quantile, nationally: you're just barely in the top quarter.

Now arrange the housing from least desirable to most and look at the 0.75 quantile of that: how affordable is the entry to the 25% most desirable places to live?

How close are those places to where you earn your 0.75 quantile living?

[ffggvv]

its not about slums. the US has abundant land and houses are cheap in most of the country. It's just big (especially coastal) cities where the prices are insane. Alot of americans do in fact live in "fly over country" where prices are 300k or sometimes less. In addition, we are lucky that we have a lot of cities, not just one major one.

Contrast this to a tiny country like britain or japan with only one major city london/tokyo where everyone wants to live. Where land actually is a limiting factor.

[kazinator]

I believe you can easily get a <= 300K detached house that is a 30-40 minute train ride from Tokyo, and in an area that itself has decent amenities.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

Yes - but that's a $300k small house, usually with a poor build quality.

In Cleveland & Detroit and many small towns you can get literally old mansions for less than $200k.

You can get small pieces of crap an hour out of even NYC and LA for around $300k - even in this crazy market. Plus your wages will likely be higher...

SF night be the only metro in the US where this isn't possible.

[Solvitieg]

> No one seems to complain about house prices more than people in the US

You need to talk to some Canadians ;)