Have you priced a beach house lately, anywhere in the world? I know of one tropical island where beach front houses were selling for $25,000 - $30,000 25 years ago, those exact same small beach houses, now 25 years old have a resell value of $200,000 - $300,000 now that this vacation spot has been "discovered", and new construciton beach front houses start in the $500,000 range. The same is true in many other even non prime areas, the town I live in has seen a rampant increase in property values over the last several years, I know one person that paid $29,000 for an older 1920's house about 15 years ago, which was a good, but not great price in his neighborhood, at the same time the house next to his sold for about $32,000 and the very small ugly brown house across the street was on the market for many months at $19,000. The house next door with a few cosmetic upgrades (vinyl siding, privacy fence in yard, etc.) recently sold for $169,000, and the ugly brown one across the street which was just repainted and had a few other improvements is currently on the market for $139,000.