this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2025
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Numbers without sources come from asses. — Famous Chinese proverb
You can spitball it with rough averages. Average Chinese housing costs about $200k to buy (more in the city, less in rural areas) and the average income is somewhere around $6k or $7k per year. Again, more in urban areas, less in rural areas. Do the math.
US average household income is about $80k. Average housing is $325k. Again, varies by location. Just a quick spitballing of numbers illustrates the vast difference in affordability.
The bottom line is it isn't even close!
The problem with your spitballing is that you use averages. Averages are disproportionally influenced by very high and very low numbers in the set of numbers the average is calculated from. Median numbers please.
That critique aside, your point still does not change that fact that a much larger precentage of chinese owns their own home compared to US citizens. In absolute numbers, it is of course even more devastating.
Even if one agrees with your spitballing, then it would follow that citizens in the PRC can save much more money to afford homes than those in the USA, who can not.
Your criticism would make sense if China had a higher gini coefficient but they do not. Plus, it is well-known that Chinese home ownership rates are a product of the one child policy tied with the fact that young Chinese can never afford their own house. Each family's one child just never moves out. It is very common to live with your parents your entire life and to assume their house once they are dead. In the US it is very common for families to have several children and for the children to move out once they are adults.