Yes housing cost has many secondary effects, including the fertility crisis, it is in fact by far the main driving factor, all other are either downstream cultural adjustments (cope) or correlations (highly educated are attracted to large cities, where the housing cost is the highest)
But having said that, and looked at the financial and regulatory effects, the main driving factor is simply supply and demand, that is demographic density.
For most goods, when demand increases, supply will follow, but housing is a peculiar kind of good because value is following a power law around a few hundreds attractive centers, meaning that supply is highly constrained, at least given current transport technology and cities structures.
The solution is obvious: let the fertility crisis unfold, that will self correct the housing cost and the fertility crisis at the same time. But we'll have to build a different social redistribution system, we can't expect a pyramid scheme to work forever.
Yes, very bad strategy because not only it is worsening the housing crisis, and thus accelerating the fertility crisis, triggering a vicious cycle.
And immigration is also a source of other problems, especially when it is fast and massive.
Governments should accept the demographic transition and adapt instead of trying to import a lumpen proletariat from elsewhere. This is the worst political mistake of Europe.
The population age has very little to do with it. Demographic density is what matters. Old and immigrants have to be housed, as long as population is increasing, the problem will worsen.
Yes housing cost has many secondary effects, including the fertility crisis, it is in fact by far the main driving factor, all other are either downstream cultural adjustments (cope) or correlations (highly educated are attracted to large cities, where the housing cost is the highest)
But having said that, and looked at the financial and regulatory effects, the main driving factor is simply supply and demand, that is demographic density.
For most goods, when demand increases, supply will follow, but housing is a peculiar kind of good because value is following a power law around a few hundreds attractive centers, meaning that supply is highly constrained, at least given current transport technology and cities structures.
The solution is obvious: let the fertility crisis unfold, that will self correct the housing cost and the fertility crisis at the same time. But we'll have to build a different social redistribution system, we can't expect a pyramid scheme to work forever.