From what I understand, the cost of building a house (in inflation adjusted terms) hasn't really changed much over the years. Instead, the land component is what has really appreciated.Why? Restricted supply. I have heard it said that they aren't making any more land but while the total land area of the Earth hasn't changed land is created at the stroke of a pen simply by rezoning it. This is the racket. The politics of spite brings in laws that make it difficult and/or expensive to subdivide land. If anyone could subdivide anything, the price of land would drop alot. Therein lays the problem.We all like to think we're making a profit on housing and would reject anything that threatened those illusory profits. Also our banking system is underpinned by so-called real assets ( as the american banks are finding out are not so real after all)
