Add to the list:
Insanely high real estate prices.
“Insanely high real estate prices.”
Vancouver, Canada used to be where Chinese investors bought everything in sight. This priced Canadians out of the ability to own a house in Vancouver.
The Canadians eventually got tired of this, changed their laws, and it became much harder for Chinese investors to own all the property.
So they came to California.
Real estate in SoCal began being bid up to crazy levels, far higher than the majority of two income households can afford. Levels as high as during the Bubble.
I asked my real estate pals who was buying and they said “Chinese buyers. Chinese buyers making full cash offers above the asking price.” In the recent quarter buying has slowed a lot. But prices are still ridiculously high. If you’ve owned property here for a long time you can be ‘equity rich’ without having anything to show for it.