> I think there is something else going on in real estate. This is the only asset class with significantly above average gains for decades

Home prices only started rising, in real terms, after WWII [1]. This appears to be driven by people wanting to drive more income to buying land, i.e. treating land as a superior good. Growing government intervention is also likely a cause. I'd caution against extrapolating two generations encapsulating post-World-War and -Cold-War booms too far.

[1] https://www.dallasfed.org/assets/documents/institute/wpapers...