> Today, Munich is Germany’s most expensive city in which to buy property, with asking prices reaching €35,000 per square metre in some exclusive developments, according to Engel & Völkers. The average price per square metre in the city is €7,630, dwarfing the €2,993 in Germany as a whole. [0]
That's wild. In USD per square foot, that's $3,700/sqft, $800/sqft, and $316/sqft respectively. Meanwhile, San Francisco's median is $1,100/sqft, the metro area's is $500/sqft, and california's as a whole is $315/sqft, remarkably close to germany as a whole. America's is $123/sqft.
Thank god for SF salaries (apparently about 150% of munich salaries).
[0] https://www.ft.com/content/9ba4873a-60f3-11e9-9300-0becfc937...
You now get a fast shrinking middle class and dismal living condition in lower class.
Of course, they could have combated this with more supply. Not sure if they have done so.
It just seems weird to me. Why are people paying such high prices when there is farmland so close by that you could buy and use to build some condominiums, townhomes, duplexes or even single family homes.
[0]: https://www.supermoney.com/inflation-adjusted-home-prices/
Rent is determined by what people with jobs can pay, property prices are determined by what international investors with deep pockets and easy credit can pay. Which one are you? If you are the former, you will be paying down a mortgage that you can barely afford. You will be a slave to the property. What if you lose the ability to pay? How secure is your paycheck really?
Keep your cash, and invest it somewhere else. You can find a new place to rent. You can leave if your community turns to shit.
The international investors with deep pockets own very, very, very few properties compared to regular people.
What if you lose the ability to pay? How secure is your paycheck really?
What if you lose the ability to pay rent? How does that make you any better off?
Keep your cash, and invest it somewhere else.
I have a mortgage with 75% of the principal left to pay, where the interest on the loan is somewhere between the third and the half of what I'd pay in rent for equivalent property. If I was renting instead of paying mortgage, I wouldn't have any cash to keep to invest elsewhere anyway.
You can find a new place to rent. You can leave if your community turns to shit.
You can also sell your house/condo and move somewhere else, at any time.
Doesn't matter, a rising tide raises every boat.
The point is that property prices have diverged from rental income, because low-interest credit from around the world is chasing properties, while stagnant wages imply stagnant rental income.
> What if you lose the ability to pay rent? How does that make you any better off?
I don't have to foreclose.
> I have a mortgage with 75% of the principal left to pay, where the interest on the loan is somewhere between the third and the half of what I'd pay in rent for equivalent property.
Between a third and a half? That sounds like a lot.
> If I was renting instead of paying mortgage, I wouldn't have any cash to keep to invest elsewhere anyway.
So you're saying your mortgage payment, taxes, insurance and upkeep is equal to rent? Where the hell do you live?
> You can also sell your house/condo and move somewhere else, at any time.
At any time? Yeah, good luck with that.
I bought my house 6 years ago. Rent prices have gone up about 30% in that time. I used to think my payment was crazy compared to renting, not I know of people renting much worse locations that are paying more, and I'm about to drop the mandated PMI because I dropped below 80% of the principal left to pay, so my payment will go down be a couple hundred more.