Naive economics question for you, Twitter! I’ve been traveling in Scandinavia, where cost-of-living seems weirdly skewed: cheap-ish real estate, expensive meals and goods (relative to SF).
In other places I’ve traveled, these usually correlate, but not here. What gives?
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Policies vary across Scandinavia, but to take Sweden for example rent control has essentially limited increases to the inflation rate, but there’s a 15 year waiting list in places like Stockholm. Buying to rent is also pretty much impossible.
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Wow, I had no idea! Fascinating. Even the for-sale real estate prices seem quite cheap relative to SF: any ideas there?
Not sure what prices you looked at, but in Sweden you don’t buy apartments, instead you buy a share in the association that owns the apartment, so on top of mortgage you have to pay rent to that association.
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Also I think the relatively low wages come into play. Or rather, minimum wages are high, maximum wages are low. Plus taxes are high obviously.
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Not sure, but my guess would be lower wages relative to SF. Also, perhaps strict rent controls has a knock on effect with the buyers market because it diminishes the flexibility of the investment?
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