I think you misunderstood me. I'm not saying thay cant fall, I'm asking can they fall? and if so why.
The answer earlier about falling wage costs make perfect sense, And the very reason for asking is that I have never studied economics which is why I ask those who seem to have a btter understanding than I do..
Sorry if it sounded like I was having a go, I tend to have a very abrupt writing style
It's got nothing to do with the wage costs though. You have to understand that prices are set at the margin i.e. something is only worth what the last buyer was willing to pay for it.
If buyers are only willing to pay €5 for widgets, then the market price of widgets is €5. Buyers neither know, nor care, that it costs WidgetCo €6 to make the things. In this case, either WidgetCo is inefficient, or the market no longer values widget production, and so resources will move from widget production to making something else that the market values higher (and at a profit). This is the fundamental essence of capitalism and market economics. And no, property isn't "different".
The cost of production, or the replacement cost, or the rebuild cost, is completely irrelevant in terms of setting
prices. Those things matter only to insurance companies, and nobody else.
Prices are set by supply and demand - by the number of buyers, what they are willing to pay, and the number of units available for purchase.
To take it one step further, in housing we usually have second and third and fourth hand buyers. The cost of production was only remotely relevant the
first time the house was sold - and then only relevant to the builder and whether or not he was going to make a profit. The first buyer neither knows nor cares whether the builder will make a profit. And when he sells on, he will get precisely what the second buyer is willing to pay - no more, no less. And the second buyer certainly doesn't care what the house cost to build x years ago.