[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.