But you can't just look at the rise in one good relative to the medium of exchange (money) and say that money is going down in value; people want a return, and

But you can't just look at the rise in one good relative to the medium of exchange (money) and say that money is going down in value; people want a return, and stocks haven't provided it in the last 2.5 years or so, which about matches up with the author's timeline. If the buyers were actually _living_ in these houses as primary residences, it'd make a stronger case for genuine inflation. Commodifying them as value generators by flipping or renting them out may be the beginning of a speculative bubble - not a good thing, but a different phenomenon.