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Everything is a depreciating asset, even cash.

'Everything is a depreciating asset' is a fair statement - but things depreciate at exponentially different levels. A lot of things can be bought today which can be used for the same purpose just as efficiently in 10 years - and there are those which do not meet that criteria.

The Anglosphere: Nuh-uh! Not houses when you take in a constant stream of new people and refuse to ever ever build anything new!

It’s also happening everywhere in Western Europe fwiw

Houses depreciate without frequent and expensive maintenance. It's the land underneath the house that appreciates. In HCOL areas, wealthy people frequently buy residential real estate expecting to tear down the existing house and build a new one.

(There are some limited circumstances where a house can appreciate due to permitting constraints or rapid rises in construction costs, but those are rare and temporary.)

That's a good point and I agree.

But zoning hell can sometimes make it apply to the housing itself too! For example, where I used to live, tons of housing was marked as "historic" and you literally couldn't tear it down or significantly amend it.

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