Why housing is unaffordable

While other causes from time to time exacerbate “housing” unaffordability the key reason for “housing” unaffordability is that land prices are growing faster than incomes. The graph below shows this:

Kavanagh (2009)

While land scarcity and speculation periodically cause land “bubbles” George argued that the inexorable growth of land values with social progress must in the end outpace the growth of individual incomes. This poses a Sphinx-like question for our civilisation. Housing unaffordability is the most obvious sign of that question.