The Housing Market Is Nuts

European housing cost data is unreliable and contradictory, with Eurostat's standard metric ranking Portugal—a country experiencing a severe housing crisis—as least burdened while the Netherlands appears most burdened, a reversal that occurs because the metric counts full rent but only mortgage interest, not principal repayment. When households are asked directly about their experience, the ranking flips dramatically, with Portugal and Southern European countries reporting far greater housing burden than the Netherlands, revealing a fundamental data crisis that obscures the true extent of housing strain across Europe.