The market tends to decouple from that logic in an appreciating market. My landlord bought the house I'm in about 10 years ago. His mortgage is a fixed monthly

The market tends to decouple from that logic in an appreciating market. My landlord bought the house I'm in about 10 years ago. His mortgage is a fixed monthly payment that's locked in from when my house was worth less than half it's current value. The rent for where I live tracks really closely to the mortgage rate it'd cost me to buy at it's current valuation. For any investor that bought a rental right now, they'd barely make anything per month. But for my landlord that bought 10 years ago, he nets $1k - $1.5k per month above his costs. It's also not as straightforward in a depreciating market, either. In a depreciating market, some property owners may rent a property out at a loss, with the expectation that the monthly loss is temporary and less than the loss they'd take it they sold now.