[hvs]

Cars and homes are completely different animals. Yes, home prices have been inflated, etc. But property is a very scarce resource and is generally a good investment over the long term. Just because you can build homes quickly doesn't mean that they will be in places that people want to live. Those places will always be highly valued.

[jacques_chester]

Property is a scarce resource in some places. Often the difference is how property is released into the housing markets, and what can be built on it.

For many purposes, Australia and Texas are comparable. Yet Texas has far cheaper housing than Australia. The difference, according to some researchers (and I agree) is that Australia has very complex, overlapping zoning laws and constricted land release; Texas does not.

Another interesting case is Germany. In Germany you have a constitutional right to build a home. Germany has apparently had, in real terms, quite flat house prices for a long time despite not being particularly land-rich compared to places like Texas or Australia.

[alextp]

Interesting. Do you have more information on both the texas/australia and the texas/germany comparisons?

[jacques_chester]

Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich at the Centre for Independent Studies is the main researcher who I saw these comparisons from:

http://www.cis.org.au/research-scholars/cis-research-scholar...

I can't locate the Texan comparison, but here's one discussing the UK and Germany:

http://www.cis.org.au/media-information/opinion-pieces/artic...

The same comparison again -- the charts are quite telling:

http://macrobusiness.com.au/2011/06/how-germany-achieved-sta...

[alextp]

Thanks :-)