zlacker

>>toomuc+(OP)
The ratio of housing cost vs real income almost tripled over the last 20 years in Sweden. Add a looming climate crisis and a self-fulfillment-oriented culture and you get very few new babies.

>>brtkdo+T5
> The ratio of housing cost vs real income almost tripled over the last 20 years in Sweden

I think this is all that needs to be said on these articles.

(There's a lot more that _could_ be said, such as how few actual birthing HN readers there are, but I think the economics is really simple at the root of it.)

Besides, even the countries with really the worst outlook and conditions aren't falling all that fast. Russia since the high point of the 1990s: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/russia-popula...

>>pjc50+57
But what is driving the housing prices up in the Nordics? Population decline would suggest weakening demand. The EU is famous for long lasting housing so lack of new inventory shouldn't hit supply side that hard.

>>stonem+s8
Population decline lags affordable property shortages (see Japan [1], where property price declines are following after rural population declines). The results of fertility decisions take years, or even decades, to see (although total fertility rate and annual births is a lower lag indicator). For example, declining school enrollment in the US is from fertility decisions made half a decade ago [2], because that's about the time when those kids born would've enrolled.

If there is insufficient supply, housing prices go up.

[1] https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/7/14/japans-abandoned...

[2] https://www.ey.com/en_us/strategy/declining-enrollment-in-pu...

>>toomuc+A8
I thought the house-as-an-asset mentality was the most to blame.

Are you sure most houses in the Nordics are occupied by the same family most of the time?

>>fiftee+ra
Not really, the privately owned stock is divided into privatized rentals (often in condo like associations) and houses. Afaik Houses are free to own (but outside of Germans wanting vacation homes there hasn't been much of an outside influx), most condos on the other hand requires you to have your official residence there (an association might grant temporary rentals but most associations frowns upon too long term rentals and the exceptions are often granted on a yearly basis).

There's other issues though (see my sibling post to GP)