I would bet that the reason housing prices have outpaced inflation is due almost entirely to the popularization of rent-seeking activities and real estate speculation (not including the relatively recent distortions due to late 1990s deregulations that led to CDS and other financial "innovations" created to derisk the asset class beyond what was rational).
Someone should do a comparison of the number of landlords per capita today versus back in 1984 and a comparison of the number of people who own a second home or own real estate investments.
I would speculate that society has by and large re-organized in a way that permits older generation to extract greater rents from younger generations beyond just social security.
It's probably possible to write an entire Phd thesis on the myriad ways in which the baby boomers and to some degree older Gen Xers extract rent from younger Gen Xers, GenY and millenials.
The world would be a much better placed if the most highly taxed form of income was rent profits in all its forms. Non-productive income is responsible for perpetuating a lot of income disparity.
If any government really wants to promote sustainable home ownership for all their citizens, they'd make homes a financial deadweight for people that aren't fully utilizing the home themselves. This would do more to make homes affordable for those that will actually live in them. Homes need to stop being seen as an investment and need to be seen as a utility. Whenever a utility is perceived as an investment you often seen market manipulation phenomena like the ones that contributed to the California Electricity Crisis of 2001.
Someone should do a comparison of the number of landlords per capita today versus back in 1984 and a comparison of the number of people who own a second home or own real estate investments.
I would speculate that society has by and large re-organized in a way that permits older generation to extract greater rents from younger generations beyond just social security.
It's probably possible to write an entire Phd thesis on the myriad ways in which the baby boomers and to some degree older Gen Xers extract rent from younger Gen Xers, GenY and millenials.
The world would be a much better placed if the most highly taxed form of income was rent profits in all its forms. Non-productive income is responsible for perpetuating a lot of income disparity.
If any government really wants to promote sustainable home ownership for all their citizens, they'd make homes a financial deadweight for people that aren't fully utilizing the home themselves. This would do more to make homes affordable for those that will actually live in them. Homes need to stop being seen as an investment and need to be seen as a utility. Whenever a utility is perceived as an investment you often seen market manipulation phenomena like the ones that contributed to the California Electricity Crisis of 2001.