Comment by klodolph
15 hours ago
Home values in Japan are somewhat anomalous. There are some good policies that contribute to this, but also other factors that make me reluctant to generalize from Japan. It’s a country with declining natural population, where houses are assets that rapidly decline in value to the point where they’re nearly worthless not that long after you buy them.
Average home age in Japan is 30 years. I think, maybe once or twice, I’ve lived in a building less than 30 years old in the US. I’ve spent most of my life in buildings built pre-war. There aren’t so many pre-war buildings in Japan, but the US takes the blame for that one :-(
The topic was "is the world becoming uninsurable?" with some climate-panic being implied, oh gosh.
If a country with 1/10th of the worlds seismic activity can have (earthquake) insurance, then well dammit, I think it can be done.
Insurance, afaict, is just gambling, and well darnit you can gamble on anything.
The odds might be terrible, but there's ways of hedging your bets I've heard.
I am not a gambler.