No. of Recommendations: 8
Even as recently as the 1950s, homes were viewed as a place to live and if you told someone you were buying a house to try to resell it at a higher price, the response would be: “Well, I'll be hornswoggled! Are ya crazy?
... Times have changed, with the massive increase in availability of leveraging making homes far more expensive.
The geographical differences can be extreme. At least from 1990 to 2015 house prices in Germany essentially were flat (neighbours, having bought a nice appartment in a typical city and area in 1990 sold it 1999 for exactly the same price). Even in the following years German house prices only partly caught up what was "missing" during all those years.
On the other hand in 2003 we bought the cheapest house in a nice modern suburb in New Zealand, living there for 2-3 months each year. 2008 we sold it for exactly double the price, so 100% gain. The prices continued to skyrocket and in 2018 that house again had doubled. That continued until Covid came.
New Zealand was one big casino, buying, selling, people talking about buying another rental property etc. Each year I predicted a housing crash, each year's "The Economist" global house price index showed NZ house prices among the most overvalued ones in the world (Ratio of house price to yearly household income) --- but that mattered to Kiwis not one bit.
So for at least around 20 years the housing market in New Zealand was the exact opposite of the German one. For Germans a private property was a losing (as investment) game, for Kiwis the best investment in their life, as good or better than stocks.
As I am on NZ please let me use the opportunity for an old Kiwi joke ("Atheist" board participants: Please do not read on):
A priest visited the most famous churches in the world. In Australia he went in a church in Sydney. He saw a red telephone with a sign: '$1 per minute'. Asking the local priest what it is about he was told: 'That's our direct line to God. It's so cheap because Australia is very close to God's own domain'. In Melbourne in a church, and in Adelaide, he always saw the same red telephone with the same sign: '$1 per minute'.
Then, in New Zealand, he went into a church in Christchurch. The same red telephone, but no sign with a price. Asking the local priest 'How much is a call to God?' he was told 'Oh, that's free. It's a local call'.
