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Same reason gold increases in $ value just by existing or people passively invest in S&P500. New money is created and it has to settle somewhere. There's plenty of cheap land or land that barely moves in value, but the desirable spots in cities are limited, so that's a natural place to invest.

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Limited yes, but limited by regulation more than anything else. Within a 30 minute drive of SF there are hundreds of square miles to develop on. Pick a dozen at random and build residential skyscrapers. Problem solved.

That's pretty much what they're doing. But the apartment that probably requires driving 30 minutes (or 1.5hr train) to work is worth a lot less than something in SF.

Edit: SF itself does have strict zoning. But even if everyone there wanted max density, so they tore everything down and built skyscrapers instead (ignoring the soil problem there), it's a fixed supply of land.

Yeah I’m seeing some of the development but it’s mostly 5 story rather than 50, and very small total area compared to what would be possible.

The apartments are still quite expensive even an hour’s train ride away.

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