The economic value of a location changes over time, so the land component of the house is not the same. Plus increases in population can dramatically shift supply and demand curves.
Sure, but basically all desirable places to live now are expensive, which wasn't the case before.
I'm not sure about the exact causes, but at some level it has to be supply and demand, I agree. Maybe just growing population. Certainly the bay area is, in my opinion, very over-populated.
It's a magical physical location, and there's too many people that want to live in it, for it to be pleasant.
(Though the horrible government also isn't helping.)
