Here is something I would like to get opinions on -- whether this is a valid historical viewpoint. Talking very macro here.
We (the world) have spent the last 80 years in a period of relative prosperity, peace, and general building up of countries' (and people's) wealth and productivity. Currencies -- stores of value -- have not defaulted generally, and as everyone engaged in producing more over the last decades (real physical goods and services representing raw materials and labor), we have accumulated all those years worth of output and stored value. Any properly operating controller of currency has to issue more currency as physical output increases (money supply, etc).
As long as there are things that do not grow as fast as wealth or people / population grows and are finite in supply (land, housing), that accumulated 80 years of wealth has to go somewhere, and we are seeing it go into rising prices of finite housing by people and institutions searching for where to put it. Everyone is actively seeking ways to spend / invest it for a return and not sit idle.
So much money seeking a return has exhausted the growth of demand for capital, and returns are pretty much 0% these days. (think of it as, how could so much capital all earn 10% interest like it did at one point?) And that money seeks out wherever it can find appreciation -- housing.
Gripe as much as you want about wealth inequality, etc. and debate/tinkering around the edges of who in particular has more money or power to purchase. There is no escaping this fundamental buildup of 80 years of postwar resources in the average person's bank account or that of governments and institutions.
Is this off base? Is my interpretation wrong? Are we just seeing the fundamental force of wealth accumulation manifest into the one place that it finds value? This is a long-term problem, isn't it, if we can't escape this truth? Especially for someone born today, who finds that everyone existing already has tons of money in the bank and you're trying to start on that ladder too, but have nowhere the same resources to compete for limited supplies of the hot item?