What a new house in Tokyo looks like

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/10/what-a-new-house-in-tokyo-look.html

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Only $400k? Man what a steal. Homes here in Austin start at that much and go up from there.

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Japanese homes are generally not as expensive because they’re built very cheaply. It’s a difference of culture - to the Japanese houses are disposable like cars.

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Homes here in Austin for the last 5 years or so (more so lately) have been built extremely cheap, and look ugly. I’ve seen a few homes valued at well over $400k that were a few months old from being completed that looked like they weren’t finished properly and were already having problems with the Texas humidity.

In the immediate vicinity of my work some builders have torn down some nice old homes from the 40’s through 60’s and build large box like homes that look terrible. No thank you. Really interesting that Japan has a similar problem, would not have thought so.

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Masaka. I have it on good authority* Japanese houses look like this:

*Akiyuki Shinbo.

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I was like “Wow this is pretty nice…” and then I saw that “stove.”

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Think that’s bad? A middle-of-the-road one-beadroom in Boston can be 650k+

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Is this a reaction to the traditional homes that had 100 year mortgages in the 80’s?

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The expanded luxury version of the house features an Easy-Bake Oven as an upgrade.

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Sometime take a look at what $400k will get you in Seattle. The home in the video would list for $800 and a bidding war would push it up to who knows how much.

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Homes in popular places expensive, study concludes

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Seriously! No wonder they aren’t overweight…they can barely make an 8x8 pan of brownies, much less a whole two layer cake.

And here I was worried about storage…well with no real oven there goes half the stuff in my kitchen.

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Seriously. Mean while in suburban NC $400k will get you an all brick +3500sq with 4 baths, at least 4 bedrooms, 2 car garage, and depending on location a 1/2 acre or more of land. I mean you can move the units around, but that kind of money is a really nice house here. Flip side, people that make six figures aren’t common.

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My particular surprise is that i figured homes in Tokyo would be far more expensive. Seems almost reasonable considering the location.

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Tokyo is enormous. Kind of like asking the price of a home in NYC. Staten Island or Greenwich Village?

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$400K USD gets you a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment in Vancouver. A house that size would be over $1M USD, even on the East side.

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Define “suburban NC”? If you are talking North Carolina, lots and lots of people make 6 figures in Raleigh and the surrounding area.

Oh god, the envy… Meanwhile, I’m renting a room in a house built in the 1920s that’s only been partially renovated, and yet is still valued at nearly $2M because Location, Location, Location…

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Home baking in East Asia is pretty much unheard of. There’s not a real tradition of it, so if you want a baked good, you go buy it from a baker. As such, household ovens are rare. A lot of East Asian immigrants to the US use their ovens for storage.

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That was a great video. It makes me want to keep my American kitchen and add a Japanese bathroom.

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