Having people drive til they qualify is a sign you have a housing crisis. Give me the name of some cities where home prices have tracked inflation in the last decade. Even better, tell me how Cleveland's suburbs have a land use regime that's any better than California?
Why would you expect home prices to track inflation in an environment where mortgage rates went from 4.76% to 2.74%?
I'd expect home prices to be bid up by an incremental amount over inflation in such an environment, as the monthly principal and interest payment for $100K borrowed at 4.76% is the same as for $128K borrowed at 2.74%. That's an additional 2.5% of house price inflation per year.
Fair enough. For the reason you pointed out, prices of ownership are not the right metric. Replace "home prices" with "rent index" and my point still stands.
