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My point zoomed right over you head! It isn't about what your house did, it is the fact that the market determines what your house is worth, not other variables. Talk to real estate agents and they will tell you there are only three things you need to know about real estate. Location, Location, and Location. Everything else makes only marginal differences.

In high demand areas like Southern California and South Florida, people are paying over a million dollars for homes that in my stagnant growth area wouldn't even get $50,000 or might even be condemned as hazards. People will pay a million for those shacks in rapidly growing areas and bulldoze them so they can spend another million building another house. The demand is in those areas and that demand determines price. While that might be cool for people who have owned a house for 20 years, it's poison for people first starting out who can't even afford a starter shack.

As for gasoline, the demand is up globally --- way up! If not for some damn good engineering and technology and a massive investment driven by competition in the oil industry, we would be paying a hell of a lot more for gas than we are now.