The comparison between Japanese and American housing models reveals that American households spend 18% of disposable income on housing, while in Japan it's almost 22%. Japan took 30 years to stabilize its property market, facing a long-term population decline. Despite Japan's lower GDP per capita compared to the US, they excel in building affordable, transit-accessible cities. Criticism suggests that other countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, and Ireland also offer larger and more affordable housing options, challenging the hype around Japan's housing model. Additionally, long-abandoned homes in Japan are negatively impacting surrounding property values.
Japan's abandoned houses wipe $25bn off nearby property value https://t.co/V4afpunnJJ Remember that Japan has rural and poor areas, like America; it's not just urbanized and rich.
Long-abandoned homes in Japan are dragging down the values of surrounding properties. https://t.co/xqZV0AkCio
In the reaction to this people seemed comfortable explaining all the ways the US was clearly worse than Japan, but didn't confront that by the same measures Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and other places also have larger and more affordable housing. Japan housing is overhyped. https://t.co/Cf8GR5ydBs
Japan is a much poorer country than the USβthey have a PPP-adjusted GDP/capita ~60% of America's, closer to Spain/Poland than Germany/Australia The fact that they're much better at building affordable, transit-accessible cities despite that is the indictment of US housing policy https://t.co/2i2VTISNDv
It took Japan 30 years to find a bottom in the property market. We are in a 2.5-year downtrend, with a secular population decline is not something that bottoms in a decade or two.
Why do people keep celebrating the Japanese housing model without admitting that it's worse than the US? American households spend 18% of disposable income on housing, vs. almost 22% in Japan. Yet we have 2.4 rooms per person vs. 1.9 there. https://t.co/yT5Nzc9GVr https://t.co/rcfSNiTtPW
Why do people keep celebrating the Japanese housing model without admitting that it's worse than the US? American households spend 18% of disposable income on housing, vs. 22% in Japan. Yet we have 2.4 rooms per person vs. 1.9 there. https://t.co/kxv2xJuI7c https://t.co/VYahBLVALu
NPR 44 second story on housing in Japan. Seriously. https://t.co/fAZryJwlfS