Comment by jhbadger
20 hours ago
Basically houses in Japan are treated like cars -- as something that doesn't appreciate in value as in most places but rather depreciate over time. Some of this is maybe cultural from the time when houses in Japan were literally constructed with paper.
That is a fascinating cultural perspective and explains a lot of things to me:
I've always treated cars like houses are in the USA- I buy an older higher end car like a Porsche, keep it in perfect shape, and expect it to appreciate- and it does. Most cars I've owned I ultimately sold for much more than I paid. I've never understood why anyone would waste money on a depreciating car, especially when a fully depreciated high end car is so much nicer and cheaper than a low end new one. Airplanes are not mechanically that different than a car, yet generally last and hold value if maintained.
I've also never understood why people in the USA assume houses will always appreciate, as if it is a law of nature or something- when at its core houses can't appreciate forever relative to inflation, because there is a hard cap somewhere below people paying 100% of income for housing. This basically proves it is just a combination of a culture that values older housing in the USA and regulatory capture preventing new construction. New houses are often seen as "cold," "sterile," or "lacking character" in the USA- and the stereotype of a successful wealthy person is in a giant old mansion.
I suspect it might have something to do with the prevalence of earthquakes, the likelihood of said structures being damaged in earthquakes, and building codes (I've heard) that require re-building on a regular basis.
When you build you civilization on active volcanoes having long-lasting buildings may not be a reasonable assumption.
And, yes!, they have insurance. So if you can insure buildings in volcano country, you can insure anything, anywhere, maybe?