Right off the bat, Bp Z purchased a property near the Gulf Coast of Texas about 10 years ago -- it even included land.
It wasn't crazy expensive -- about the same price as a house in some parts of the country. This is Texas -- land is relatively cheap.
BUT right away, within a couple years, the land had doubled in value. It's been 7 or 8 years since I heard that.
Why did it increase? Well, developers started buying up acreage up and down Delaney Rd to build subdivisions. That massively increases the value of land in the area. Do you KNOW how much you make when you subdivide a parcel of land into dozens or hundreds of brand new $250,000 homes?
Men become RICH, as in (((rich))), doing that.
Children might not understand, but "land" or "property" doesn't make you wealthy. You can't eat or spend land. Money doesn't literally grow on trees!
Unless you have some way to farm the land or something, it's just a roof over your head, and a field to look at and relax in.
The Appraisal District (or Zillow, Realtor.com, etc.) can say it's worth $5 million, but that doesn't make a BMW appear in your garage, nor does it magically stuff your wallet with $100 bills or give you gold teeth.
Net worth and income are two VERY different things.
At any rate, unless you bought property(ies) in Detroit or other manufacturing-heavy cities, for the most part, real estate has only gone UP for the past 30 years. There have been ups and downs -- but anyone from GenX or older who owns property probably has seen an increase in their investment. Frankly, the same could be said of the Stock Market.
YES, it's QUITE possible we could have a financial collapse or Day of Reckoning at some point -- but that point has not entered reality just yet.