[eli_gottlieb]

This is exactly the conclusion Henry George came to when he investigated these phenomena: a land-value tax. I, personally, would couple it with a rebate/"prebate" for a certain value, as society's way of saying, "If you use less than $X in land/commons value per year, that's fine." The X would be set so that the fat middle of the bell curve of single-family residences would fall within X.