Sort of. This dynamic occurs to the extent that there is a widespread monied middle-class that is competing for housing which doesn't exist. Each person needs

Sort of. This dynamic occurs to the extent that there is a widespread monied middle-class that is competing for housing which doesn't exist. Each person needs a home; there are more people than homes; therefore the people bid up the prices of homes to consume all of their available income. It didn't exist when the monied class was limited to entrepreneurs, VCs, and other capitalists. Back around 2005 or even 2010 when average engineer salaries were $150K instead of $500K and "Silicon Valley wealthy" meant Jobs/Page/Brin/Zuckerburg/etc. and the founders whose companies they bought, average home prices were about 1/3 of what they were now. In fact, the monied class often became the landed class as they traded tech wealth for land. I know one old-money brand-name tech family with land holdings in the Bay Area that are roughly twice the size of San Francisco. There could be 2 million people living on that land; instead there are about 12, because the family in question would rather keep it as conservation ranchland than developed urban area. It's the same story of commoditization & inflation that economists have known for centuries. When only a few people have money, they have the power. When everybody has money, nobody has money, and the money all goes to people who own the scarce goods they need.