> People bidding whatever they can afford is largely a lack-of-supply problem, is it not?
ECON101 thinking. Tokyo is given as an example of enough supply, but something like 25% of the nation lives there, and Tokyo doesn’t have the same pressure of young working age people moving as other countries due to their aging population. Imagine even 10% of the USA moving to New York, and say 20% of all 2x year olds per year. How does NY double or triple the number of residences?
And as you say, status drives prices. In Christchurch we have a desirable suburb Merivale, where people bid rediculous prices because it has money status. The exact same house in another suburb, closer to town, can be a lot cheaper.
In NZ people want their kids to go to high decile schools. A high decile school is one where the parents are in the top 10% of earners. There is natural price discrimination working in the housing market to keep prices just barely affordable at every wage.
In New Zealand and Australia we have major cities where houses are 10x earnings, bigger multiples than most of the USA, and you will be surprised how much more US house prices can go up. New York doesn’t make the top ten list for unaffordability in the world: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/least-affordable-cities-to-...
New Zealand’s major city has 20% of the country’s population, and is also ridiculously expensive compared to household earnings. I wonder how many more houses it needs before prices would drop?
We are building new houses at a fucking insane rate in Christchurch (lag from Earthquakes a decade ago) - yet prices are still chronically hiking.
NY is very dense, yet prices are very high, so it breaks ECON101 assumptions since prices must have gone up as density went up. One theory is that houses are Veblen goods - which totally fucks with supply/demand curves.
ECON101 thinking. Tokyo is given as an example of enough supply, but something like 25% of the nation lives there, and Tokyo doesn’t have the same pressure of young working age people moving as other countries due to their aging population. Imagine even 10% of the USA moving to New York, and say 20% of all 2x year olds per year. How does NY double or triple the number of residences?
And as you say, status drives prices. In Christchurch we have a desirable suburb Merivale, where people bid rediculous prices because it has money status. The exact same house in another suburb, closer to town, can be a lot cheaper.
In NZ people want their kids to go to high decile schools. A high decile school is one where the parents are in the top 10% of earners. There is natural price discrimination working in the housing market to keep prices just barely affordable at every wage.
In New Zealand and Australia we have major cities where houses are 10x earnings, bigger multiples than most of the USA, and you will be surprised how much more US house prices can go up. New York doesn’t make the top ten list for unaffordability in the world: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/least-affordable-cities-to-...
New Zealand’s major city has 20% of the country’s population, and is also ridiculously expensive compared to household earnings. I wonder how many more houses it needs before prices would drop?
We are building new houses at a fucking insane rate in Christchurch (lag from Earthquakes a decade ago) - yet prices are still chronically hiking.
NY is very dense, yet prices are very high, so it breaks ECON101 assumptions since prices must have gone up as density went up. One theory is that houses are Veblen goods - which totally fucks with supply/demand curves.