Owning a Piece of The Dream?

home-that-didnt-sellGrow up, get married, own land…

That’s been the American dream for ages.  Owning a home or piece of property has always been viewed as a sign of wealth and as a good investment.  What if that is no longer true?  Robert J. Shiller for the Economic View section of the New York Times brings this idea to light in his article, Why Land and Homes Actually Tend to Be Disappointing Investments.  Shiller points to many causes but one of the most intriguing is the decrease for demand of urban land, specifically home plots; with the development of micro-housing.  A current trend that is changing the way many live in “downtown” areas.  Where this movement will be in ten or even twenty years still remains to be seen, but if it goes the way Shiller predicts, the need for rural land will be so low that farmland may be converted back into wildlife preserves.