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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/PenthouseREIT on 2024-01-01 08:12:53.
We need to make it cheaper to raise kids and own a home.
I feel the housing is one of those things that would sort themselves out, just not in a short timeframe.
If population keeps declining, there won’t be enough people who can afford houses at their current prices, and this will put pressure on people who want to sell houses to lower prices. If it gets to the point where there aren’t buyers for all the houses, the ones with the least attractive value will be priced out of the market until they become cheaper.
As for raising kids… Oof. That’s a difficult one to solve. As a senior software engineer with a partner that makes similar money (i.e. two above-median salaries), I can’t see kids as something “I can afford”. I am in the UK, but this is a worldwide problem (and to different extents in different countries). Unless we were to subsidize certain things very heavily to make it financially really easy, I think we’re going to see Japan’s trend replicate in more places.
The reason housing is not solving itself, is that investment firms are buying and controlling all the stock and controlling the pricing. This is also why rents are so high.
I suggest legislation where the practice is severely restricted. Maybe an increase in the property tax rate if you do not live in the property, with an additional tax if the property does not have an occupant. Or a higher tax rate for corporately owned properties.
When my parents were young, they could afford a 4 bedroom home, two kids and our education on the single income of a teacher with my mother being a stay at home mom. The problem is that salaries have not kept up with inflation in the last 50 years.
Raising kids costs time as well as money. You cannot have time to have kids if both parents need to work full time.
