As this is our country's 250th year and there is constant chatter about the high cost of real estate, it seems prudent to look back to the beginning when there were very few survey lines and individually owned properties. Google estimates in 1776, there were approximately between 400,000 to 500,000 owned properties within the original 13 colonies.
Fast forward to today, go to your computer and search for the appraisal district website within your county of origin. This is where all property ownership records and property details are provided to the public. If you select the GIS map, you can view all the individually owned properties within the county. The number of surveyed parcels, cities, towns, subdivisions, developments and condominiums are staggering. Google estimates there are currently around 160,000,000 individually surveyed and owned properties within the United States.
320 times more individually owned properties than at our founding in a matter of 250 years. The land masses on the surface of the earth are finite like other natural resources. The only valid option to offer availability of ownership to the populace is through division. The pace and rate of property division is almost 3 times the rate of growth of our population during the same time period.
This is the most basic economic lesson on the effects of a fixed or limited supply and an ever increasing/multiplying demand. What will things look like in another 50 or 100 years?