In the long term, I think housing should appreciate like inflation, otherwise people are quickly priced out of owning a home. Granted, this is what we are somew

In the long term, I think housing should appreciate like inflation, otherwise people are quickly priced out of owning a home. Granted, this is what we are somewhat seeing in Palo Alto, but this is probably a step function due to changing conditions in the area over that time, such as the creation of Silicon Valley. Also, just because the _median_ home price increases that much does not mean an individual home's price increased that much. Again this could be changing conditions in the area.