Land Is Underrated as a Source of Wealth

When most people think of wealth in the modern economy, they tend to think of stocks and bonds. The word “capital” is often synonymous with corporate ownership. Land wealth, meanwhile, is often relegated to a footnote. Yes, people own houses, but vast fortunes are made in the stock market, while the fates of nations rise and fall with the bond market.

At least in the U.S., the bursting of the housing bubble has given some the idea that land appreciates more slowly than other assets. If one looks only at capital gains, stocks have outperformed housing by a wide margin in recent decades: