And 150 years ago you can probably buy a few acres of land in SF Bay Area for less than the inflation-adjusted price of a townhouse in Mountain View these days.
Real estate is one thing that does not scale infinitely. Population grow, things change.
>can't blame them when they get out into the market and finally start saving that they're 10 gonna be 10 years behind for the rest of their life...
That's the thing about Americans. The speed of change in this country has finally increased after decades, especially when comparing to many fast developing countries. A lot of people just don't know how to adjust for that.
There are a ton of people who are interested in living in densely populated big cities but the issue is that there isn't enough high rises or tall residential buildings to offset the demand.
There's definitely policy that could be done but it'd destroy the existing value for homeowners and landlords. That's why it doesn't get passed - obviously.
I have neighbors who bought their $3m homes when they weren't even $800k (adjusted for inflation). And since salaries + stocks have grown much faster than their property tax burden (basically frozen) - they're all retiring early.
People have expectations based on what they grew up with or what their parents grew up with or what they saw people achieving as they grew up. Can't blame them when they get out into the market and finally start saving that they're gonna be 10 years behind for the rest of their life...