Suppose they move horizontally to a similar house. I don't know, they want one story instead of two. Since a rising tide lifts all boats, the new purchase is a

Suppose they move horizontally to a similar house. I don't know, they want one story instead of two. Since a rising tide lifts all boats, the new purchase is about even with the old sale- but they also owe taxes. So within this window, they are objectively worse off than your average Joe who can move across town without owning those taxes. Anyone trading up is also impacted as well. Suppose you bought a condo at 100k, and SFH was 200k. In five years you want to trade up, but the market went up 100%. Your condo sells for 200k, but the SFH costs 400k. Despite the lovely appreciation on your condo, you'd probably prefer if the market hadn't moved. Sure, there's people who have it worse. Owning any home at all puts them in better shape than most of the world. But it's still not enviable to be unable to move within your community.