People pay because it is still the best choice for the non-financially-savvy to secure their net worth given the policies our government has made the past few y

People pay because it is still the best choice for the non-financially-savvy to secure their net worth given the policies our government has made the past few years. Someone else already explained how renting costs way more, and people would argue the break-even point for renting vs buying is only about 1 to 2 years. That's without taking into account all the restrictions landlords are putting up. Once you get past the hurdle, banks give you insane amounts of money to buy these insanely priced houses with. And due to the low rent, you're not that much worse off than 5 years ago. Since no one who buys a house today wants to end up losing out, many homeowners will vehemently oppose any measure which could make the prices sink, so more borrowed money, so even higher prices as long as there isn't a suitable alternative (cheaper/affordable and easy to attain rent).