> my house ... for which I have been paying consistently for years If you are paying for it, not past-tense, then it's not technically your house. The apparen

> my house ... for which I have been paying consistently for years If you are paying for it, not past-tense, then it's not technically your house. The apparently uneven market for real estate is shocking to buyers because of the variability of supply constraints, caused by geography but also in great measure by zoning regulation. The hackneyed refrain of "location, location, location" as the chief determinant of the value of a property illustrates this point. > I must admit that I have tolerated this behavior from my landlords. You have tolerated it precisely because you actually know that the value of property is not fixed. As demand increases while supply does not, the value/price goes up. Clearly you like the location, so you've not moved away. You are part of the demand that is moving prices upward. Your willingness to pay more is precisely what sets the price, along with supply. > A problem to be remedied by legislation if the governing societal expectations do not naturally lead to a different equilibrium. As the article points out, legislation focused on remedying the problem would relax constraints on supply caused by zoning, regulatory hurdles, etc. But so often the people complaining about the cost of housing are the same people voting to keep supply constrained.