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Comment by Inufu | Hacker News Reader

Did you read the article? It's whole argument is that housing in Japan is much cheaper than other cities.

Home ownership in Japan is not a permanent thing, however. You build a new house every 3 decades. This is going to drive the cost down during the time that you're paying for a house, sure - you use cheaper materials, everything is build with a short timeframe, etc. But if I buy a house here on a 30 year loan, at the end of the 30 years, I'm no longer paying that off. It's just property taxes and upkeep, etc. In Tokyo, at the end of those 30 years I'm building a new house. I don't ever stop.

There's no point where I go "Yep, mortgage is paid off, I don't plan on ever moving, or if I do, I can sell this house for enough to pay for another house that I can just move in to."

Any single month or year might be cheaper, but it still costs a lot more in the long run to perpetually be paying for your house.

Only people that buy the plot after someone else moves out build a new house. It generally retains the exact same house for the durations of someone's life there.

That may be true, but it's also true that the house isn't much of an asset. Houses in the US are a capital investment. In Japan, they are more like durable goods.

While I imagine this is true for some people, the average of houses when torn down in Japan is 30 years according to their Ministry of Land, and I have multiple co-workers who have spoken about moving their family in with their or their spouse's parents while having their home torn down and rebuilt.

That was exactly what I was trying to say, only you said it better.

Here's a link to a paper about it: http://www.nri.com/global/opinion/papers/2008/pdf/np2008137....

> Unlike people living in Western nations, residents of Japan have not benefited from an increase in the value of the nation’s housing stock. Houses here last only about 30 years on average, effectively making them a durable consumer good, whereas in Western countries a house is a capital good that will retain its value almost in perpetuity as long as it is properly maintained. The market value of Japanese houses falls even faster than they can be depreciated for tax purposes; after 15 years the typical house is worth nothing.

A big part of my net worth is the equity in my house. I'd be much poorer if my home depreciated to zero after 15 years.

Relative to salaries, housing is expensive. This entire comment thread has several people making that same point.

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