Expensive real estate is a symptom of one of two things: 1. A rapid upward change in desirability or job market health. In the long run, this will even out as

Expensive real estate is a symptom of one of two things: 1. A rapid upward change in desirability or job market health. In the long run, this will even out as housing is built-- it's just slower to build new houses than create new jobs or reasons for people to live somewhere. If it's demand-based, expensive housing doesn't mean that it's a good place to live; only that it became a better place to live faster than builders could react. 2. Pathology, including NIMBYism (Silicon Valley, the Village) and outright crime (New York's rent-control scams) or problems with the transportation system (again: Silicon Valley). The dumbshits who cheer on high real estate prices think it's a demand improvement, when it's almost always (over 95%) a supply problem, that causes real estate to go up. The most expensive city in the country is Luanda. Next is Moscow. Neither is known for a robust, healthy economy. People tend to mistake the second for the first and assume that expensive real estate is a sign of something good. It's not, and the long-term effects of expensive real estate are extremely undesirable.