I've lived in the US for so long that I forgot other countries have like semi-serious government that actually do stuff. I just tried to buy a house in the UK and since I last there they've added a billion new taxes. There's a buying a house tax, a buying a second house tax, a buying a house when you don't live in the UK even though you're a citizen tax, a non-resident landlord tax, UK specific capital gains tax... and they all stack on top of each other. I am going to get absolutely clapped by taxes, but it's nice to see even right-wing governments trying to address the housing crisis.
If you want to get an idea of just how bad the housing crisis in the US is, you can make money just by buying a house. I'm not talking about owning instead of renting, I'm not talking about renting it out, or flipping it, I'm talking about just buying a house as if it were stock in a corporation and leaving it empty. You pay something like 1.2% property tax per year, but the value increases about 4.5% per year. In some cities it can be as much as 12%+ per year. At which point you could theoretically pay cash for a house, take out a loan against the value of said house to get your money back, then buy another house with the exact same money you bought the first house with. The appreciation covers taxes + interest, so over time you can just buy infinite houses for free without even adding the almost non-existent value landlords and flipper add to the market (few people actually do this because renting them out lets you buy infinite houses faster, but the fact that it's even possible is literally insane).
@malwaretech I think you are forgetting about the inflation, the real inflation, not the officially reported one.
