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Comment by sdsd | Hacker News Reader

I think it's mostly empty, but everyone is cramming into the same few places. Eg I don't think rural Japan has this problem. But then you have to give up on high paying jobs, live standup comedy, lots of matches on tinder, or whatever else people do in cities (tbh I've never lived in one for a long time so idk)

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Exactly, you can pick up a rural house in France 4 hours from Paris for €100k. 2 hours away it's a different story, and obviously within Paris itself the same affordability issues are evident as in the article.

The value of living in cities is constantly going up. Loads of rural areas are just collapsing because they have hollowed out to the point there are no jobs or stores left. Italy has been giving out houses for $1 in rural areas but they are basically worthless.

The winning move is to work remotely/hybrid from the countryside (close enough to a city though), and invest all the savings in housing to stock market.

I can't see the value in pure city-living when quality of housing keeps going down, and prices go up. Better salary alone doesn't mean anything.

I agree that for remote workers being near enough to a major airport (not exactly sure how near near enough is) should open up cheaper housing that's not regular commute convenient, but if you have another household member who needs to work somewhere in person you're kind of stuck.

> (close enough to a city though)

Well that is a problem. I dunno why small town or village grocery stores worked perfectly fine until syddenly they started to close down one by one.

There has to be some oligopolly or something at play.

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