kj1980, you know what's scary the most? A lot of what you're describing is true over here too. Actually, true to the point of being scary.
In the town I live in, which is a small town in the middle of nowhere, land in the city fetches just rediculous amounts of cash (it's a historic town full of doctors, lawyers, politicians, and other rich folk) and houses are no younger than probubly 50 years or so. In fact, I don't think I've seen a new house built in this city in my entire lifetime. Some buildings here date back to the founding of the city. So that also accounts for the rediculous prices. Now outside the city is different. You can grab land really cheap, especially if its land from a farmer who's slowly giving up his fields one at a time or a section at a time as he's getting ready for retirement. (a lot of farmers are giving up on farming around here because the state of Michigan is just making it WAY too expensive for them and their kids don't want to have anything to do with the family farm.
But that's another story entirey.)
In some areas around here you can snag a house with land for as little as $20,000 if you know where to look. So compared to the city it's a great deal. So yeah, there's a lot that is very similar to what you guys have over there.