[Tailback]

A lot of communities have artificially propped up real-estate prices by enacting legislation that limits the amount of available housing, whether by restricting development, or the kinds of houses that can be built, or the minimum size lots.

You just described the situation in Portland and the Willamette Valley. (Oregon) My wife and I bought our first home 3 years ago. 3br 2bth 1400 square feet on a 80X100 ft lot. $127,000 The funny thing is that there's plenty of space in Oregon, only 3 million or so population in a state that pretty big. Urban growth bounderies and land use laws are bleeding Oregonians dry.

[Torie]

Portland area prices have been rather stagnant for about 6 years or so. I own a house in Tigard that assessed at $164,000 in 1996 and is at $188,000 now. I bought it in 1990 or so for $96,000 as an investment, because I could get a rent of about $950 a month. Now the rent is $1,150, although property tax rates were slashed in the interim (that was part of my thinking at the time), but it has become a pedestrian investment. I bought another house in Tigard for $72,000 back then, and it brought in a rent of $825 per month. For a Californian, I considered these rent to value ratios just absolutely insane.