I really hate this comment. I am worried about not being able to ever being afford a house for my family. Avg income in my neighborhood is ~49k but a 2 bed condo here are selling for 450K and getting outbid by 75k over the asking price. Its insane.

Maybe you already own a house and are happy that prices are up. But its really weird to tell other ppl what they should be worried about.

Sure, and your point about housing prices mattering is a good one (see my other comment on this story). But, this describes maybe a few dozen housing markets. Probably only a couple dozen if you cut out resort/ski towns. It's a regional problem, not systemic problem with the national economy.

It, uh, describes all of Canada actually.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-economy-housing-an...

Also, more Americans live in California than any other state. So if it’s an outlier, it’s an especially impactful one.

Its a national problem

https://www.redfin.com/us-housing-market

'few dozen' is what like 3 dozens? Assuming its a problem only in 36 markets. Wouldn't that be a 'national problem' ? 36 markets should covers a majority of population in the country.

E.g., in the Midwest you'd have to be in a nice part of Chicago or choosing the most expensive city neighborhood of a mid-sized city to find a meaningful number of $525K 2 bed condos. And even then, spending that much on a condo is 100% an unnecessary luxury. 10 minutes in any direction prices will crater, and by the time you get to the suburbs starter homes are from the $200s and $525K is a mansion. For the entirety of the midwest and most parts of the south.

Even on the coasts $525K for a 2 bed condo is a Big City thing. E.g., $500-$700K is the going rate for 2 bed condos in most of Boston, but drive an hour away from Boston in any direction? Not so much. Hell, even Wakefield has a 2 bed condo below $300K and that's only a 25 minute drive. And that's one of the more expensive housing markets in the US.

Living 20 minutes from major city centers via public transit has become a luxury, sure. But it's just not accurate to say that $525K for a 2 bed condo is "normal" in the US. It's not. It's quite specific to a very high CoL markets.

When I look at real estate in general in Chicago, it's been dropping a little, not a ton, but it's not like how other are describing the huge increase in housing costs in other parts of the country.

It seems like there are big regional differences going on with housing costs in the US. Supply/demand and policy I'm guessing are making the difference.

This attitude that the market must always go up has never worked out historically, just makes the eventual reckoning that much worse.

Fortunately that mentality means that renters like my wife and I who want our future kids to grow up in a good house in a quality school district can just keep saving money, waiting to capitalize on the inevitable normalization when all the speculators and eggs-in-one-basket people fail to learn from history... again.

Just inflating the bubble further, as every European bank and government is doing, to make existing property owners richer on paper and get their votes, is not a viable long term solution.

IMHO, it can't pop sooner. Houses should be for living, not for speculation and hoarding wealth. The younger generations have been screwed enough by the old established wealth hoarders.

Otherwise, the number of people in that "put their life savings as a downpayment on an overpriced house" category is only going to grow, making the problem worse when the collapse eventually happens.

I think we run into real problems in America trying to protect people from the consequences of their own bad decision making. In addition to being deeply patronising, it eliminates so many of the normal incentives to be responsible and pushes up risk appetite across the board.

If individuals make poor investments (whether on a house or gamestop otm call options) they'll learn their lesson and move on. There's enough of a safety net in America to ensure no one truly goes hungry from bad luck (and before you point to homelessness- that's a complicated issue intertwined with drug addiction, mental illness and in some cases a free lifestyle choice)