I agree with you. Also, a home if taken care of, appreciates in value. Gas, when you purchase it, burns up and is gone forever once you use it. So I agree. There is no comparison.
If you bought a home 10 years ago for $100,000 and just sold it for $300,000, have you engaged in price gouging?
The gasoline retailer does not burn up the gas before they resell it, thus the comparison of buying and reselling a house is correct.
Wrong. Housing appreciation is only a reflection of market demand -- i.e. more people equals more willing buyers. Go to an area that is losing population or has a stagnant population, and home prices do not appreciate in real dollars, and sometimes do not even keep up with inflation, no matter how much you take care of that home. Go to a high growth area, and a falling down shack that has never been maintained grows in value just as fast as a well cared for house.
The amazing thing to me is that gas prices, when measured for inflation, are about the same as they were 50 years ago while we have more than twice as many cars on the road and those cars are on average logging nearly twices as many miles driven per year as the average car did 50 years ago. It's the oil industry, not some assclown politician or consumer advocate that have invested billions to explore, transport, refine and deliver that fuel that has allowed prices to remain so low in real terms.