4 ms·
> Most Americans take it for granted that home prices should generally go up. But if you think about it for a moment, there is no inherent reason to expect this
by michaelcampbell 5y ago
> Most Americans take it for granted that home prices should generally go up. But if you think about it for a moment, there is no inherent reason to expect this.
This is a goofy, naive statement; population is ever increasing, so when you buy a home or even just a plot, your "share" of the earth in terms of land is constantly growing if you amortize it over the population.
I say this without a stance on the morality of it, but just the math.
- roberto 5y agoThe annual population growth in the US in the last 40 years is around 1%, and is diminishing (latest numbers show 0.5%). The average annual growth in house prices since 1992 in the US is 5.3%.
- TeeMassive 5y ago> population is ever increasing That doesn't make sense. Population didn't grow in the order of hundreds of percents in the recent years.
- vesinisa 5y agoFurthermore, real estate prices anyway always raise due to inflation.
- turtletontine 5y agoyou're saying housing prices should increase because land is finite and therefore scarce. but there is so much land in the US and more empty houses than homeless; even in expensive neighborhoods a lot of housing scarcity is artificially created by zoning policies for upper middle class residents with a vested interest in keeping their house valuable. and that's not even mentioning that the physical house itself (as distinct from the land) should generally depreciate in value as it ages and requires more maintenance and stuff replaced. same logic as a car