I see a lot of expensive houses being built in my area. A LOT. And the weird thing is that they're being bought pretty quickly. Are these people just making more money than me? If so, what are they doing for a living? Or are they just living house poor? How exactly are they affording these places?
Edit: For reference, my neighborhood is starting to become popular (because the other popular neighborhoods have priced most people out of affording places there). The normal price of newer homes here is $700k. My home, built in 1965, which is 2500sq ft on a quarter acre of land, is $500k.
It's the chineses. Buying real estate is kind of their thing, and since their home grown real estate ventures aren't maturing well (check out evergrande), they're out in other ponds buying up what they can. Down here in sunny California, we've got entire neighborhoods bought out by Chinese investors before ground is even broken. Then, when it's time to actually sell, they crank up the price of everything by 60-100%. That's how you get a shitty stucco condominium going for $2m+ in South city. It's all a scam.
I'm not blaming immigrants at all. I'm blaming chineses. It's their culture bud. There are thousands of years of written records for that country, and buying/stealing land is pretty much the only cultural constant over every dynasty, warlord, or ruler you care to read about. Mao, despite killing millions with ballslapping ignorance, was one of the first to seriously go after landlords. Unfortunately, money always wins so now they're back to everybody gotta get theirs first. The world is a zero sum rock as far as most people are concerned, there and here.
But I get it, you aren't allowed to be angry at the actual people responsible for your lack of ability of to afford housing, because if you did, you would have to acknowledge that you helped put the people in place who screwed you.
So instead, we will pretend our problems are the fault of other people. Because we are cowards. Yes?
There is no fault. Lmao It's about money. It's always about money. And it turns out chineses are real good, culturally, at making money. Something about having few qualms about where it comes from. Its almost funny being able to see a 100 story high-rise from a village that would be third world by any standard, but its actually sad. But that's just the chineses, doing China things. It's only been that way since the Han dynasty, if not longer.