On Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:34:02 -0700 (PDT), Cindy Hamilton
wrote:

Housing prices are based on what people are willing to pay. People
with money are willing to pay a lot for houses. Therefore, those
piles of wood (or, in my case, concrete) are worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars.

No, it usually isn't people with money buying houses. It is people
who can borrow money. If they had to pay the same money out of their
own pockets, they would likely be a lot more careful about what was
purchased.

This is usually called the "free market".

Oh, and rising property taxes don't drive housing prices up. If
anything, they drive housing prices down (a little), because people
can afford less house if they have to pay more property tax.

Go ahead, put on the tin foil hat. I think you need it.