The thing that increases in value the most is the land underneath the house. It doesn't make a lot of sense for house to increase value as it gets older. But ev

The thing that increases in value the most is the land underneath the house. It doesn't make a lot of sense for house to increase value as it gets older. But even the house is a subject to inflation and the effect of "back in my days we could buy a toilet bowl for $20" can be seen even here. City centers exist, just look at tourism and public transport. It's more valuable when you can rent out apartment as AirBnb, it becomes more valuable when tourists can't drive, distance from museums and shopping malls increases value and possibility that the land you own could be bought out for development of high density building is what drives the value up. Housing is not a bottle of water you can buy in groceries. Housing is one of the few things most of us buy on debt. If you increase the amount of debt people can take by lowering risks for banks, the price will rise. Also there are many other factors like that cities that complain about high cost of housing mostly have draconian municipal building codes and zonings. Even racism has a play in it, it's truly interesting topic to study.