https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/20/business/economy/spokane-...
We need some more fundamental reforms.
The merging of Seattle and Tacoma was inevitable. The same thing has happened to a lot of cities that are separate by <1hr commutes via highways.
Basically, "(re)legalize housing", along with things like corner stores and neighborhood commercial like corner stores and barber shops.
Only caveats are you need to enjoy seclusion (check) and be good at remote employment (this year will be my 10 year anniversary of being 100% remote). Energy costs are a bit high, so I installed 20 kW of solar and will be switching to an air-sourced heat pump for heating & cooling. Even adding these costs to the purchase price results in paying less.
Agreed, we didn't buy house as an investment vehicle, we bought it for living expenses consistency over time. It's the speculators that ruin any market.
Where I lived in Italy, people certainly purchase houses, but they don't expect them to have crazy returns like in the US. It's just a way to not pay rent and have something that you can hang on to even if there's inflation or other funny business (something that Italy has seen a lot of).
People even invest in, say, apartments, but it's a similar story: they expect them to hold their value and pay themselves off over a number of years. There are certainly returns on it, but they are seen as steady, long term investments.
Where I live in Oregon, during the most recent boom, there were houses "earning" more than 100,000 a year, just sitting there. That's more than the median household.
Yeah, it's a bit apples to oranges, but still, it's really out of kilter.
Long term, it'd be healthiest if housing were 'boring', neither gaining or losing much. That'd also facilitate people swapping out different housing at different stages of their lives without worrying about timing the market.
For instance, there are a lot of people getting older in the town I live in. Are they always going to want to or be able to shovel snow? Mow their lawns? Maybe a townhouse or a condo would be a better alternative that lets them stay in their general neighborhood.