[rayiner]

> The XXX-acre rural farmland wasn't as valuable as the same space in town when purchased as a lot, but now it holds as many homes as that downtown space used to. Is it worth the same today, relatively, as that space was then?

Yes, they are. It's hard to make a direct comparison, because falling interest rates have caused housing prices to go up, and as people have gained income they have chosen to buy much bigger houses. But the per square foot price of a median-sized new home has been stagnant at the $100-120 range (based on CPI) since 1973: https://donsnotes.com/financial/real-estate.html. And falling interest rates have meant that the monthly mortgage payment per square foot has actually gone down over that time.