For all the talk about the shrinking middle class in the US, it still pales to the predicament that young Chinese face in China today. Underneath the hype of China's GDP growth rates lies a housing bubble that outdoes even the US. Housing prices have climbed up 20-50% every year in Shanghai for the last decade, while wages stagnate at 3-5%.
The average take-home income in Shanghai for a college grad is just $6000 (40k yuan) a year, but home prices for Soviet-era projects go for at least $150,000 (1 million yuan) for a tiny studio. Mind you, these are uninsulated concrete slabs that make Chicago projects look luxurious.
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The skewed gender ratio in China makes this extra cruel for young men. In Shanghai, young women expect their boyfriends to buy a home before proposing, a bride-price so to speak. With prices as high as they are today, young men and their parents are under enormous stress to purchase these overpriced homes in order to get married. Many rely on the pooling of 3 generations of savings (since it would take many lifetimes to pay off these homes on one individual's salary). Those without family support are out of luck as every passing year makes home ownership and starting a family even more remote.
So why are home prices so high and rising so much? Speculation for one. Many of the condos in Shanghai are actually speculative investments and run vacant. The other is the belief that home prices can only go up, so everyone is rushing into the market with all their savings and credit. With prices going up 20-50% every year, people view it as the only ticket to getting rich. It's like the tulip bubble. Also limited transportation systems in the suburbs prohibit people from living too far away from the city center.