Eru beat me to the answer. Since the 1970s we witnessed a bunch of major trends: interest rates (lending costs) drop near 0, household incomes increase signifi

Eru beat me to the answer. Since the 1970s we witnessed a bunch of major trends: interest rates (lending costs) drop near 0, household incomes increase significantly due to women entering the workforce, continued urbanization, and rapid population growth. All of these trends supported massive appreciation of land and real estate. My perspective on this is that (especially urban) landowners were beneficiaries of an economic lottery that is unlikely to reoccur in our lifetimes.