All the shitty covenants they put in much/most of even the shittiest of wasteland around me still exist though.

There was one piece of absolute shithole land I looked at because I was in the process of building a house.

Some dead guy decided to encumber it by requiring me to build a gigantic house if I wanted live there. Reversing it would require something as onerous roughly as getting all people in a 10 mile radius to stand on one foot while reciting the entire bible from memory. Technically possible so it holds up in court as not being a perpetual covenant, but for all intent in purposes was.

You would not believe how much land boomers basically ruined forever when they mindlessly engaged in some wack covenants back around the 80s.

Every settlement reaches a level of density where they have to re-reckon with land use rules collectively — that’s one of the deep flaws in a primarily private approach to land however appealing (and definitely particularly popular in boomer heydays).

https://www.statista.com/statistics/241488/population-of-the... - Look at the 60 and older groupings. Those are boomers and older generations. The youngest boomers are about 60, so 15 years average remaining for them but potentially 20-30 more years of boomers as a significant percentage of the population.

But many are are/will be downsizing, moving to retirement communities or otherwise cashing out of their houses well before they die.

Not in California unfortunately, where Prop 13 has strong tax incentives to keep retirees in their existing home until death, even if it's far larger than what they need.