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Concrete Floors! No Working Toilet! Just $200K In Shanghai

Apartments, apartments, everywhere; nor any flat to buy: Survey after survey reveals that young Chinese are stressed out — and skyrocketing property prices are one of the main reasons. Zhuo Yang/NPR hide caption

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Zhuo Yang/NPR

Parallels

Concrete Floors! No Working Toilet! Just $200K In Shanghai

In China, if you want to get hitched, you pretty much need to have a house. No house? Good luck to you, comrade. After decades of explosive growth, the cost of living in China's big cities has skyrocketed, and a generation of young people has been largely priced out of the housing market.

The Parking Spots That Cost More Than Half A Million Dollars

Parking spaces behind 298 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston are seen Friday. The two open spaces at right, front and back, were sold at auction for $560,000. Michael Dwyer/AP hide caption

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Michael Dwyer/AP

The Two-Way

The Parking Spots That Cost More Than Half A Million Dollars

Question: If the median price for a single-family home in Massachusetts is $313,000 and two Boston parking spaces sell for $560,000, how many other spaces does the buyer already have? Answer: Three.

From The Sky, A View Of Spain's Boom And Bust

A screengrab of a satellite image of Cordoba, Spain, in 2004 (left) and 2011. Satellite images via Google Earth and Nación Rotonda hide caption

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Satellite images via Google Earth and Nación Rotonda

Parallels

From The Sky, A View Of Spain's Boom And Bust

A new website offers a different perspective on the ruins of Spain's construction bubble. Called Nación Rotonda, or "Roundabout Nation," the site displays before-and-after aerial photos of Spanish towns, documenting how quickly half-built condos and urban sprawl have replaced open land in recent years.

The Land Boom

How much is it worth?

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Robert Smith/NPR

Planet Money

The Land Boom

On today's show, we visit a place where global economic forces converge: Colo, Iowa. The price of farmland in Iowa has doubled in the past few years. We look at the broader economic picture, and ask: Is it a bubble?

The Land Boom

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