zlacker

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+(OP)
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+R1
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)

>>toomuc+(OP)
We are thinking about a second kid now, and realized...we kind of screwed up. Women are really most fertile from their 20s to very early 30s (and also have the best chance of a healthy baby, etc...), it is a time when most people aren't even thinking about getting married yet these days, let alone having kids! When you finally figure out you are ready...well...it is much harder to have a kid.

So we really needed to think of this a few years ago. It might still be possible, but now it is an uphill battle and will be a much higher risk pregnancy to boot.

>>seanmc+Ac
If the woman is 35 and over it is called a geriatric pregnancy. Need to do a bunch of additional tests to make sure the kid doesn't have genetic defects.

>>thijso+Xf
Fun (?) fact: Birth defect risk for an over 40 pregnancy is the same as with a first cousin.

>>toomuc+(OP)
If you're waiting for your life to be stable enough to have children, most likely you're never going to have them.

As years go by, life becomes more complicated, not less. With or without children.

Having children also involves sacrifice, improvisation, unpredictability, suffering... and lots of people are apparently allergic to all of those things.

>>hahama+Oi3
> Having children also involves sacrifice, improvisation, unpredictability, suffering... and lots of people are apparently allergic to all of those things.

Rightfully so. There is no extra credit for unnecessarily burdening yourself.