Noted economist (who warned about the housing bubble) Robert Shiller has pointed out that there is a lot of land in the world, and that with growing trade, there is no reason for housing prices to skyrocket in the future in any country as they did in so many places at the beginning of this century..... But he thinks they will anyway. The official summary:
Land isn't that scarce and people just don't seem to understand how
little housing should and will appreciate long term. These irrational
expectations are likely to bite us again and again with more housing
bubbles, according to Robert Shiller.
His concluding paragraph
The sobering truth is that the current world economic crisis was substantially caused by the collapse of speculative bubbles in real estate (and stock) markets—bubbles that were made possible by widespread misunderstandings of the factors influencing prices. These misunderstandings have not been corrected, which means that the same kinds of speculative dislocations could recur.
So much for rational expectations, I guess. But that has been a Shiller position for years.
. .