> Most Americans take it for granted that home prices should generally go up. But if you think about it for a moment, there is no inherent reason to expect this.

This is a goofy, naive statement; population is ever increasing, so when you buy a home or even just a plot, your "share" of the earth in terms of land is constantly growing if you amortize it over the population.

I say this without a stance on the morality of it, but just the math.