Nah, the answer is the view. We as a society have long since lost the sight of where our prosperity (or should I say, former prosperity) comes from.
Hint: real estate prices only go up when there're people with enough money to buy that real estate. Real estate at the prices we have in this country is only possible when someone's buying it.
The usuals, whatever I post is my opinion, yaddayaddayadda. I'm still learning this, so if you listen to me, well, good luck to you :)